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I— 1 


Modern  Business 


A    SERIES    OF    TEXTS    PREPARED    AS 

PART   OF   THE   MODERN  BUSINESS 

COURSE  AND  SERVICE  OF  THE 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

INSTITUTE 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  INSTITUTE 
NEW  YORK 


795 


Modern  Business 

BDITOR-1  N-c'lllKI' 

JOSEPH  FRENCH  JOHNSON 

Dean,  New  York  University  School  of 
Commerce,  Accounts  and  Finance 

MANAGING    EDITOR 

Roland  P.  Fai.kner 

ASSOCIATE    EDITORS 

Leo  Green di.inc.eh,  Charles  W.  Hurd 


Volume  Titles  Authors 

1.  Business  and  the  Man Joseph  French  Johnson 

2.  Economics  of  Business The  Editors 

3.  Organization  and  Control       ....  Charles  W.  Gerstenberg 

4.  Plant  Management Dexter  S.  Kimball 

5.  Marketing  and  Merchandising    .      .      .  The  Editors  • 

6.  Advertising  Principles Herbert  F.  de  Bower 

7.  Salesmanship  and  Sales  Management     .  John  G.  Jones 

8.  Credit  and  the  Credit  Man     ....  The  Editors 

9.  Accounting  Principles The  Editors 

10.  Cost  Finding Dexter  S.  Kimball 

11.  Corporation   Finance William  H.  Walker 

12.  Business   Correspondence Harrison  McJohnston 

13.  Advertising  Campaigns Mac  Martin 

14.  Railway   Traffic Edwin  J.  Clapp 

15.  Foreign  Trade  and  Shipping  ....  J.  Anton  de  Haas 

16.  Banking Major  B.  Foster 

17.  Domestic  and  Foreign  Exchange       .      .  E.  L.  Stewart  Patterson 

18.  Insurance The  Editors 

19.  Office   Management The  Editors 

20.  The  Exchanges  and  Speculation     .      .  Albert  W.  Atwood 

21.  Accounting  Practice  and  Auditing       .  John  T.  Madden 

22.  Financial  and  Business  Statements     .  Leo  Greendlinger 

23.  Investment Edward  D.  Jones 

24.  Business  and  the  Government     .      .      .  Jeremiah  W.  Jenks 


BUSINESS   AND   THE  MAN 


BY 


JOSEPH  FRENCH  JOHNSON,  D.C.S.,LL..D 

Dean  of  the  New  York  University  School  of 
Commerce,  Accounts  and  Finance 


MODERN  BUSINESS 
VOLUME  I 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  INSTITUTE 
NEW  YORK 


COPYHIOHT,  1918,  1919,  BY 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  INSTITUTE 


COPYRIGHT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN,  1918,  1919,  BY 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  INSTITUTE 


The  title  and  contents  of  this  volume  as  well  as  the 
business  growing  out  of  it,  are  further  protected 
by  laws  relating  to  trade  marks  and  unfair  trade. 
All  rights  reserved,  including  translation  into 
Scandinavian. 


Registered  trade  mark,  Reg.  U.  S.  Pat.  Off.,  Marca 
Registrada,  M.  de  F. 

Made  in  U.  S.  A. 


<* 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

"Modern  Business"  is  a  pioneer  work  in  its  field. 
Its  authors,  who  are  successful  teachers,  have  aimed 
in  these  twenty-four  volumes  to  apply  scientific  meth- 
ods in  the  discussion  of  the  various  phases  of  busi- 
ness and  at  the  same  time  to  be  so  practical  and  clear, 
and  so  copious  with  illustrations,  that  their  words 
shall  be  readily  understood  by  every  man  of  ordinary 
intelligence.  They  should  appeal  to  the  mature  man 
already  engaged  in  business,  for  they  will  explain 
many  phenomena  which  now  puzzle  him;  and  to  the 
young  man  looking  forward  to  a  business  career,  for 
they  will  give  him  a  helpful  grasp  of  underlying  prin- 
ciples and  a  most  useful  knowledge  of  modern  forms, 
methods  and  practices. 

The  volumes  of  "Modern  Business,"  it  should  be 
clearly  understood,  are  not  designed  to  cover  thoroly 
and  in  detail  every  point  that  ought  to  be  included  in 
a  study  of  present-day  business;  they  constitute  but 
one  feature  of  the  Alexander  Hamilton  Institute's 
comprehensive  course  of  training  for  business.  The 
function  of  the  Texts  is  to  present  clearly  the  basic 
principles  of  each  subject  discussed.  Applications  to 
specific  problems,  concrete  questions,  technical  details 
are  largely  left  to  be  treated  in  other  features  of  the 
course.     The  twentv-four  text  volumes  of  the  Insti- 


vi  EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

tute  present  in  most  readable  form  the  fundamental 
principles  in  accordance  with  which  successful  busi- 
ness is  and  must  be  conducted.  It  is  intended  that 
the  subscriber  who  reads  these  volumes  and  the  other 
literature  of  the  Institute  shall  have  the  substance  of 
a  liberal  education  for  business,  that  he  shall  be  better 
able  to»  understand  and  solve  any  and  all  kinds  of 
business  problems,  and  that  in  his  own  business  he 
shall  rely  more  and  more  upon  reason  and  the  proved 
experience  of  others,  and  less  and  less  upon  prejudice, 
weak  imitation  and  outworn  traditions. 

It  is  only  during  the  last  few  decades  that  business 
has  been  recognized  as  a  science  worthy  the  attention 
of  specialists.  Many  doctrinaire  political  economies 
have  been  written,  but  these  in  the  main  have  sought 
to  explain,  not  the  actual  phenomena  of  the  business 
world,  but  the  phenomena  of  an  imaginary,  hypothet- 
ical world  in  which  all  men  were  supposed  to  be  ac- 
tuated solely  by  economic  or  material  considerations. 
Such  classic  writers  as  Adam  Smith,  David  Ricardo, 
and  John  Stuart  Mill  performed  a  great  service  for 
humanity,  for  they  called  attention  to  certain  truths 
which  must  always  prevail  so  long  as  human  nature  is 
unchanged;  but  their  service  lies  largely  in  the  field 
of  pure  economics  rather  than  that  of  practical  or  ap- 
plied economics.  Our  great  economists  did  not  seek 
to  explain  the  actual  phenomena  of  every-day  life. 
Their  interests  lay,  not  in  the  science  of  business,  but 
in  social  or  national  economy.  As  a  result  their 
works,  altho  possessing  great  scientific  value,  seem  far 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE  vii 

removed  from  the  affairs  which  interest  the  practical 
business  man. 

The  volumes  of  "Modern  Business,"  on  the  other 
hand,  are  directly  concerned  with  the  problems  which 
the  business  man  is  called  upon  daily  to  solve.  They 
treat  specifically  of  the  science  and  art  of  business. 
The  problems  involved  in  the  more  general  science  of 
so-called  political  or  national  economy  they  discuss 
only  in  so  far  as  light  is  thus  thrown  upon  actual 
transactions.  These  twenty-four  volumes  from  a 
scientific  point  of  view  all  belong  in  the  same  field, 
each  discussing  a  separate  set  of  business  phenomena. 
Could  their  contents  be  condensed  into  a  single 
volume,  it  would  be  a  complete  syllabus  or  outline  of 
the  science  of  business  in  all  its  phases  and  practical 
applications.  It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that 
the  writers  ignore  the  teachings  of  the  older  econo- 
mists. On  the  contrary,  those  teachings,  in  so  far  as 
they  are  applicable  today,  are  here  given  emphasis 
and  fresh  illustration. 

Within  the  last  few  years  many  of  the  leading  uni- 
versities of  the  United  States,  including  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania,  New  York  University,  Harvard, 
University  of  Wisconsin,  University  of  Michigan  and 
the  University  of  Illinois,  have  established  schools 
of  commerce  in  which  they  aim  to  give  young  men  a 
thoro  training  in  the  principles  of  business.  Their 
work  is  based  upon  a  belief  that  thru  a^study  of  com- 
mercial methods  and  economic  forces  a  young  man 
may  get  valuable  mental  discipline  and  at  the  same 


viii  EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

time  acquire  the  technical  knowledge  and  the  habits 
that  make  for  efficiency  and  success  in  business. 
These  schools  of  commerce  have  been  the  outgrowth 
of  a  popular  demand  for  instruction  of  the  sort  they 
give,  and  the  large  number  of  students  they  have  en- 
rolled is  evidence  that  the  people  of  the  United  States 
realize  the  importance  of  intellectual  training  as  a 
preparation  for  business  careers.  It  has  long  been 
acknowledged  that  a  man  who  chooses  the  career  of 
a  physician,  of  a  civil  or  mechanical  engineer,  of  an 
architect,  or  of  a  dentist,  must  prepare  himself  for  his 
work  by  devoting  several  years  to  study  in  the  schools 
and  universities.  Now  it  is  known  that  the  young 
man  who  chooses  a  career  as  a  banker,  or  certified 
public  accountant,  or  stock-broker,  or  bond-dealer, 
or  fire  or  life  insurance  agent,  or  journalist,  or  real 
estate  dealer,  or  manufacturer,  ought  in  the  beginning 
to  learn  by  study  all  that  is  possible  from  the  experi- 
ence of  others.  In  other  words,  many  of  our  business 
careers  have  become  professional  in  their  character, 
requiring  a  training  of  the  intellect  quite  as  much  as 
the  older  professions.  It  is  for  this  purpose  that  our 
schools  of  commerce  have  been  established  and  are 
now  enrolling  large  numbers  of  students. 

But  not  all  men  can  attend  these  schools  of  com- 
merce. Many  a  young  man  is  earning  a  living  in  his 
native  town  at  a  distance  from  a  university  and  with- 
out the  means  to  go  to  it.  Furthermore,  there  are 
thousands  of  older  men — including  many  of  high  abil- 
ity— in  the  United  States  and  other  countries  who 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE  ix 

realize  the  deficiencies  of  their  early  training  and  re- 
gret that  they  have  no  opportunity  to  get  the  educa- 
tion which  they  could  not  get  or  did  not  get  in  their 
youth.  Most  ambitious  men  of  this  kind  have  fami- 
lies to  support  and  are  tied  down  to  a  particular  loca- 
tion. It  is  for  men  of  this  sort  who  are  distant  from 
universities,  or  whose  daily  employment  prevents 
their  attendance  upon  university  schools,  that  these 
volumes  have  been  prepared.  The  authors,  all  of 
them  experienced  university  teachers,  have  aimed, 
above  all  things,  at  comprehensiveness  and  clearness, 
in  order  that  no  reader  of  intelligence  might  be 
puzzled.  They  have  aimed  also  to  develop  each  sub- 
ject in  such  logical  fashion  and  to  illustrate  all  points 
so  clearly  that  every  reader  who  conscientiously  fol- 
lows directions  and  does  the  work  outlined  for  him 
shall  not  fail  to  arrive  at  an  intelligent  understanding 
of  each  of  the  subjects. 

Every  author  was  urged  to  have  clearly  and  con- 
stantly in  mind  the  following  facts : 

( 1 )  That  the  subscribers  to  the  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton Institute  Modern  Business  Course  and  Service 
are  active,  intelligent,  ambitions  business  men. 

(2)  That  the  single  aim  or  purpose  of  the  Modern 
Business  Course  and  Service  is  to  help  men  to  become 
more  productive  and  to  increase  their  incomes,  either 
by  showing  them  how  to  improve  the  quality  of  their 
present  work  or  by  fitting  them  for  more  difficult  and 
more  profitable  undertakings. 

In  Volume  1  on  "Business  and  the  Man,"  I  have 


x  EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

sought  to  make  clear  the  fundamental  nature  of  busi- 
ness and  to  show  how  human  qualities  and  character- 
istics affect  the  success  of  men  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth. 
It  is  intended  as  a  study  of  human  nature  based  on 
long  experience  and  related  especially  to  the  business 
field. 

For  valuable  suggestions  in  the  preparation  of  this 
volume  I  am  greatly  indebted  to  my  colleagues,  Pro- 
fessor Enoch  Burton  Gowin,  and  Dr.  Rudolph  M. 
Binder  of  the  New  York  University  School  of  Com- 
merce, and  to  one  of  my  former  students,  Clinton 
Collver,  recently  director  of  the  School  of  Commerce 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in  Balti- 
more. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  take  the  space  here  to  describe 
the  contents  of  all  the  Texts.  The  reader  will  find 
that  they  treat  of  all  forms  of  business  activity  and 
that  these  might  all  be  conveniently  classed  under  four 
heads  as  follows:  Production,  Marketing,  Finance, 
Accounting.  The  scope  and  aim  of  each  volume  the 
subscriber  will  find  succinctly  stated  in  each  author's 
preface. 

The  order  of  arrangement  may  strike  the  subscriber 
as  arbitrary,  but  it  is  not.  It  was  adopted  after  a 
careful  analysis  of  the  curricula  of  university  schools 
of  commerce  and  is  believed  to  be  the  best  possible  se- 
quence in  which  the  various  subjects  can  be  taken  up 
and  mastered.  Some  of  the  volumes,  to  be  sure,  could 
be  read  with  profit  by  a  man  who  had  not  read  all  or 
any  of  the  preceding  ones;  for  example,  the  Texts 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE  xi 

on  "Advertising  Principles"  and  "Business  Corre- 
spondence." In  regard  to  other  volumes  it  is  pre- 
supposed that  the  subscriber  already  has  mastered  the 
contents  of  certain  other  volumes.  It  is  well  there- 
fore for  the  subscriber  in  his  reading  to  follow  the 
arrangement  prescribed  by  the  Institute. 

The  relations  of  the  United  States  to  Canada  are 
growing  closer  every  day.  That  the  American  busi- 
ness man  should  know  something  of  Canadian  prac- 
tice where  it  differs  from  our  own  is  highly  important. 
We  have,  therefore,  secured  for  some  of  the  volumes 
the  collaboration  of  Canadian  authors,  who  have  read 
the  galley-proofs  of  the  Texts,  and  inserted  such  in- 
formation as  seemed  necessary  to  give  a  correct  view 
of  Canadian  experience  or  practice. 

The  review  questions  at  the  end  of  each  chapter 
are  intended  to  be  an  aid  to  the  subscriber.  He  is  not 
expected  to  send  written  answers  to  the  Institute.     , 

The  personal  service  of  the  Institute,  however,  ap- 
plies to  the  reading  of  the  Modern  Business  Texts. 
Thru  this  service,  any  questions  which  may  arise  in 
the  mind  of  the  subscriber  concerning  the  subjects 
treated  in  the  Texts,  will  be  answered.  The  sub- 
scriber is  urged  to  submit  to  the  Institute  any  doubt- 
ful points. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  give  due  credit  to  all  the 
persons  who  have  united  in  the  effort  to  make  these 
twenty-four  volumes  worthy  of  their  purpose.  The 
authors  have  put  their  best  thought  into  the  books, 
and  have  never  failed  to  give  patient  heed  to  the 


xii  EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

editor's  suggestions.  Full  credit  is  given  to  the  thou- 
sands of  loyal  Institute  subscribers  who  thru  their 
timely  suggestions  and  criticisms  of  the  Texts,  have 
helped  to  make  them  of  such  practical  value.  These 
suggestions  are  always  gratefully  received,  and  when- 
ever desirable,  they  are  embodied  in  the  succeeding 
revision  of  the  Texts.  I  feel  personally  under  great 
obligation  to  my  old  friend  and  colleague,  Dr.  Roland 
P.  Falkner,  upon  whose  shoulders  has  fallen  a  large 
part  of  the  heavy  task  of  editing  and  revision. 

Joseph  French  Johnson. 
Xew  York. 


,  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS 

Introduction  to  the  Modern  Business  Course  and 

Service 1 

BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN  . 
CHAPTER  I 

NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS 

SECTION  PAGE 

1.  Definition  of  Business 37 

2.  Profit  and  Risk  Essential  Elements    ....  39 

3.  Importance  of  Money  and  Price 40 

4.  Business    Must    Satisfy   Human   Wants    ...  41 

5.  New   Wants    Constantly   Appearing    ....  42 

6.  The  Overproduction  Bogey 44 

7.  Importance  of  Salesmanship  and  Advertising  .       .  45 

8.  Three  Great  Classes  of  Business 46 

9.  The    Professions 47 

10.  Artists 49 

11.  Is  Business  a  Profession? 50 

12.  What  Constitutes   Success  in  Business?    ...  53 

13.  Dignity  and  Importance  of  Business   ....  54 

14.  Business  as  a  Job 57 

15.  Business  as  a  Fascinating  Game 58 

CHAPTER  II 

THE  PROFIT  PROBLEM 

1.  Cost  and  Prices 61 

2.  Necessity  for  Capital 62 

xiii 


xiv  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

[Oh  PAGE 

J}.  Capital  Got   Only   l>\    Saving (j3 

4.  Nature  of  Competition 65 

5.  Unfair  Competition 67 

6.  Building  an  Organization 69 

7.  Labor  Troubles *    .       .  70 

8.  Unforeseen  Price  Changes 72 

9.  Perils  of  Advertising 73 

10.  Bad   Debts 74 

11.  Unwise  Laws 75 

12.  Climatic  Uncertainties 77 

13.  Changes  in  Eashions  and  Eads 78 

14.  Brains  and  Will-Power 79 


CHAPTER  III 
ECONOMICS  AND  SOCIOLOGY 

1.  Custom  or  Group  Habits 82 

2.  Aim   of   Sociology 82 

3.  Socialism   Not    Sociology 84 

4.  Aim  of  Economics 84 

5.  The   Reformer 85 

6.  Mercantilists 86 

7.  Physiocrats 87 

8.  English   Classical   School 88 

9.  Significance  of  Human  Wants  .       .      .      .       .       .90 

10.  Sociology  and  Consumption 91 

11.  Poverty  and  Incompetence 93 

12.  National  Efficiency 94 

13.  Inflexibility  of  Custom 96 

CHAPTER  IV 

PSYCHOLOGY 

1.  The  Human  Equation 99 

2.  Nervous  System 99 


CONTENTS  xv 

SECTION  PAGE 

3.  Nerve  Ganglia    ....      - 100 

4.  Medulla   Oblongata 100 

5.  Cerebellum 101 

6.  Cerebrum 101 

7.  Habits,  Good  and  Bad 101 

8.  Operating   the   Mental    Machine 102 

9.  Appeals   to   the  Instincts 103 

10.  Making  Use  of  Reason 104 

11.  Choice  of  Appeals 105 

12.  Suiting  Appeal  to  Person 106 

13.  Traits  in  Common 107 

14.  One's  Own  Personality 107 

15.  Appeal  in  Relation  to  Action 108 

16.  Attention 109 


CHAPTER  V 

ETHICS  OF  BUSINESS 

1.  Science   of  Ethics Ill 

2.  The  Moral  Imperative  in  Business 112 

3.  The   Law   and   Ethics 115 

4.  Codes  of  Ethics        .      .      . 115 

5.  Caveat  Emptor 116 

6.  Standards  Enforced  by  Law 118 

7.  Unwise   Laws 119 

8.  Trades  Lacking  Standards 120 

9.  Merchandising    .       .  ' 121 

10.  Trade  Associations 122 

11.  Wall  Street 124 

12.  New  York  Stock  Exchange 126 

13.  Ethics   of   Directors 127 

14.  Ethics   of  a   Great   Industry 128 

1—2 


xvi  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

CHAPTER  VI 

VISION,  OK  THE  IDEA 

nonoN  page 

1.      Imagination 130 

«,     Visual 131 

3.  Sound  and  Other  Sense  Images 132 

4.  Memory   Supplies   the   Materials 133 

5.  Imagination  in  Science 134 

6.  The  Ideal 136 

7.  Vision   and   Judgment 137 

8.  Idea  and  Ambition 139 

9.  Idea   and   Enthusiasm 141 

10.  Vision  and  Will 142 

11.  Genius 143 

12.  The  Fixed  Idea 144 

13.  Vision  at  Work 145 


CHAPTER  VII 

PERSONAL  EFFICIENCY 

1.  Energy,  Time  and  Space 150 

2.  Know  Thyself 152 

3.  Be  Thyself 154 

4.  Temperament 156 

5.  The  Efficient  Mind 158 

6.  Purpose .159 

7.  The   Dominant   Trait 161 

8.  The  Head  and  the  Heels 163 

9.  Habit 164 

10.  Environment        .                    166 

11.  Poise,   or   Self-Possession 167 

12.  Weak  Spots  in  Character 168 


CONTENTS  xvii 

CHAPTER  VIII 

HEALTH 

SECTION  PAGB 

1.  The   Strain   of  Business 171 

2.  What  Is  a  Strong  Body? 172 

3.  Sound  Nerves 175 

4.  Relation  of  Body  to  Mind 176 

5.  Health   Must   Be   Earned 177 

6.  Exercise 178 

7.  Play 181 

8.  Right  Mental  Attitude 182 

9.  Ready  Remedies 184 

10.  Alcohol  and  Other  Habit-Forming  Drugs  .       .       .    185 

11.  Food 187 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE  EFFICIENT  BUSINESS  MAN 

1.  Certain  Essential  Qualities 189 

2.  Decision 190 

3.  Expert  Knowledge 191 

4.  Judgment 193 

5.  Self-Reliance 196 

6.  Patience  and  Grit 196 

7.  Concentration 197 

8.  Enthusiasm 199 

9.  Imagination 200 

10.  Executive  Ability 200 

CHAPTER  X 

THE  EXECUTIVE 

1.  Three  Classes  of  Men 203 

2.  The  Executive  a  Business  Statesman   ....  205 

3.  Delegated   Responsibility   of  the  Executive    .       .  207 

4.  Qualities  of  the  Executive 209 


xviii  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

uotion  paqb 

5.  Responsibility 209 

6.  Initiative 211 

7.  Courage 212 

8.  Energy 213 

9.  Selection  of  Subordinates 215 

10.  Methods    of   Control 216 

11.  "Born  Leaders" 217 

12.  Tay  of  the  Executive 219 

CHAPTER  XI 

SUBORDINATE  OR  JUNIOR  OFFICERS 

1.  Duties  and  Responsibilities 223 

2.  Training  and  Experience 224 

3.  Team  Work 225 

4.  Loyalty- 226 

5.  Obedience 227 

6.  Adaptability 228 

7.  Willingness  to  Learn 229 

8.  Ideas  and  Initiative 230 

9.  Capacity  for  Detail 231 

10.     His  Prospects 233 

CHAPTER  XII 

THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER 

1.  Men  and  Machines 235 

2.  Work   and   Responsibility    of   the   Rank-and-File 

Worker 237 

3.  Training  for  Higher  Positions 238 

4.  Choosing  One's  Career 239 

5.  Certain   Cardinal   Virtues 240 

6.  The  Cheerful  Worker 242 

7.  Courtesy 244 

8.  Personal  Appearance 246 


CONTENTS  xix 

SECTION  PAGE 

9.     Punctuality 247 

The  Man  in  a  Rut ,248 

Hidden  Perils 249 

On  Getting  a  Start 252 

Education  and  Advancement 255 

Wages 256 


CHAPTER  XIII 
PERSONALITY 

1.  Intuitive  Judgments 260 

2.  Meaning  of  Personality 262 

3.  Strong  Personalities 263 

4.  Disagreeable  Personalities 264 

5.  Value  of  Personality  in  Business 266 

6.  Possibility  of  Development 267 

7.  Qualities  a  Young  Man  Should  Cultivate  .       .       .  269 

8.  Resolute  Will 269 

9.  Self-Control 271 

10.  Knowledge  and  Self-Confidence 273 

11.  Self-Confidence  Is  Not  Conceit 275 

12.  Courtesy 275 

CHAPTER  XIV 

CHARACTER  ANALYSIS 

1.  Character  and  Personality 278 

2.  Does   Character   Mark   Us? 279 

3.  Phrenology  and  Physiognomy 281 

4.  Evolution  of  Physical  Characteristics  ....  285 

5.  Mental  Power    * 287 

6.  Practical  Tests 289 

7.  Will-Power 290 

8.  Stability  and  Reliability 293 

9.  Energy,  or  Love  of  Work 295 


xx  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

nonoN  PAGE 

10.  The   Dishonest   or  Tricky   Man 297 

11.  Tact 298 

CHAPTER  XV 

OPPORTUNITY 

1.  Universally  Desired 302 

2.  Growth  Creates  Opportunities 302 

3.  Business  Opportunities  Increasing  in  the  United 

States 304 

4.  Variety  and  Opportunity 305 

5.  Is  There  a  Law  of  Opportunity? 306 

6.  Opportunity   and   Ability 308 

7.  Opportunity  Always  Near  at  Hand    ....  309 

8.  The  Will  for  Doing 311 

9.  Business  Experience 313 

10.  Luck 314 

11.  Opportunity  and  Age 316 

12.  Preparedness 318 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR 
BUSINESS 

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  MODERN  BUSINESS 
COURSE  AND  SERVICE 

1.  University  schools  of  commerce. — Only  a  few 
years  ago  no  books  were  to  be  had  which  treated  busi- 
ness subjects  in  a  way  both  practical  and  scientific. 
In  1890,  if  a  man  wished  to  solve  any  of  the  problems 
of  business  or  to  get  an  understanding  of  business 
principles,  he  had  to  think  it  all  out  for  himself. 

Since  that  time,  however,  American  universities 
have  admitted  business  subjects  into  their  curricula, 
and  men  of  scientific  training  have  been  studying  the 
phenomena  of  business.  In  the  last  century  science 
has  made  clear  to  us  many  of  the  processes  of  nature. 
It  has  helped  even  the  farmer  to  increase  his  crops.  It 
foretells  the  weather.  It  has  given  us  vehicles  pro- 
pelled by  gas  and  electricity,  rendering  the  horse  al- 
most obsolete.  It  has  enabled  man  to  fly  thru  the 
air.  Science  is  at  last  at  work  in  the  field  of  business, 
and  should  accomplish  there  results  as  brilliant  and 
valuable  as  any  that  have  been  achieved  in  physics  or 
chemistry. 

The  purpose  of  a  university  school  of  commerce  is 
twofold:  First,  to  give  the  students  a  scientific 
knowledge  of  the  laws  or  principles  governing  busi- 
ness phenomena;  second,  to  make  its  instruction  so 

1 


2  INTRODUCTION 

practical  that  the  student  when  he  enters  business  will 
know  something  of  the  nature  of  his  task  as  well  as 
of  those  higher  up. 

All  professional  schools  have  this  double  purpose. 
For  example,  the  medical  student  must  study  the 
sciences  of  physiology',  bacteriology  and  chemistry, 
and  also  learn  by  experience  in  the  hospital  how  to 
make  use  of  these  sciences  in  the  care  of  disease.  The 
experience  which  makes  a  man  a  great  physician  is  ob- 
tained only  by  years  of  practice.  The  medical  school, 
if  it  does  its  work  well,  graduates  a  man  trained  in 
the  necessary  sciences  and  with  some  skill  in  the  ap- 
plication of  their  principles.  In  the  same  way  a  uni- 
versity school  of  commerce  aims  to  train  men  in  the 
sciences  underlying  business  and  to  give  them  some 
knowledge  of  the  practical  difficulties  that  will  con- 
front them  in  actual  business. 

The  medical  school  does  not  seek  to  train  specialists, 
but  rather  to  give  that  broad  knowledge  of  funda- 
mental principles  without  which  a  specialist  would  be 
narrow  and  one-sided.  In  the  same  way  a  university 
school  of  commerce  aims  first  at  broad  training.  Spe- 
cialization must  come  later. 

2.  Purpose  of  the  Alexander  Hamilton  Institute. — 
The  Alexander  Hamilton  Institute  was  founded  in 
1909  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  the  aid  of  science 
to  men  who  are  engaged  in  business.  It  puts  into 
their  hands  literature  which  will  help  them  to  under- 
stand the  principles  underlying  business  phenomena. 
It  does  not  aim  to  make  them  specialists,  as  account- 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS         3 

ants,  or  bankers,  or  credit  men,  or  merchants ;  it  aims 
rather  to  help  them  gain  such  a  clear  understanding 
of  all  business  operations  that  their  feet  shall  be  on 
a  solid  foundation  whatever  their  business  or  their 
specialty. 

Modern  business,  in  a  sense,  is  an  organism  com- 
parable to  the  human  body.  The  oculist  who  has  not 
had  an  all-round  training  in  medical  science  is  a  quack 
incapable  of  diagnosing  correctly  diseases  of  the  eye, 
for  many  of  these  diseases  are  symptoms  of  disorders 
in  other  parts  of  the  body.  In  somewhat  the  same 
way  eveiy  business  man  is  confronted  by  problems 
which  he  cannot  solve  correctly  if  he  has  only  a  super- 
ficial knowledge  of  business  in  general.  Business  is 
exposed  to  perils  which  the  ignorant  man  cannot  fore- 
see. He  does"  not  even  suspect  their  existence.  If 
they  overwhelm  him,  he  blames  his  luck,  not  his  ig- 
norance. 

The  violent  readjustments  made  necessary  in 
American  business  by  the  great  war  furnish  an 
illustration  showing  how  closely  the  various  parts 
of  the  business  world  are  knit  together.  The  effects 
were  so  stupendous  that  any  man  could  trace  them 
to  their  cause.  The  causes  of  the  higher  prices  of 
dye-stuffs  and  of  certain  drugs  were  obvious.  It 
was  obvious,  too,  that  the  war  would  bring  an  in- 
creased demand  and  higher  prices  for  munitions.  Re- 
sults like  these  everybody  understands.  The  war  was 
an  object  lesson  on  a  large  scale.  But  the  untrained 
business  man  does  not  know  that  many  events  in  the 


4  INTRODUCTION 

business  world  are  the  results  of  forces  invisible  to 
the  casual  observer.  He  fails  to  realize  that  the  law 
of  cause  and  effect  rules  in  business  quite  as  much  as 
in  nature. 

The  condition  of  the  human  body  is  revealed  to  the 
wise  physician  by  symptoms.  There  are  signs  also 
which  indicate  the  condition  of  the  business  organism. 
Certain  phenomena  are  invariably  followed  by  cer- 
tain others.  The  Alexander  Hamilton  Institute 
wants  its  subscribers  to  be  able  to  trace  the  connec- 
tion of  cause  and  effect  between  events  in  the  business 
world.  It  would  have  them  scientific  as  well  as  prac- 
tical. 

3.  Duty  of  the  subscriber. — Every  teacher  has  met 
the  student  who  expects  the  teacher  somehow  to  in- 
ject knowledge  and  understanding  into  him.  Such 
a  student  unconsciously  thinks  of  his  intellect  as  a 
bucket  and  of  the  teacher  as  a  man  of  such  skill  that 
he  can  fill  the  bucket  with  knowledge.  He  does  not 
want  to  make  any  effort  himself  and  is  rather  in- 
credulous when  told  that  he  has  got  to  do  the  work, 
the  teacher  merely  telling  him  what  to  do. 

The  first  duty  of  a  subscriber  to  the  Modern  Busi- 
ness Course  and  Service  is  to  resolve  that  he  will  read 
carefully  and  with  an  open  mind  all  the  Texts  and 
other  literature  which  he  receives  from  the  Institute. 

His  second  duty  is  to  give  the  Institute  every  possi- 
ble chance  to  help  him.  If  he  has  tried  his  best  to  un- 
derstand a  principle  or  to  solve  a  problem  and  is  still 
perplexed,  he  should  seek  the  advice  of  the  Institute. 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS  5 

Finally,  the  subscriber  should  not  let  himself  get 
discouraged.  Most  of  his  study  should  be  a  joy  to 
him,  for  the  human  mind  is  fortunately  so  constituted 
that  it  loves  to  understand  things.  Curiosity  is  a  man- 
ifestation of  that  love;  if  that  quality  had  been  left 
out  of  man,  the  human  race  would  still  be  in  a  state  of 
savagery.  Instinctively  a  man  wants  to  know  why 
certain  things  take  place.  Too  often  men  are  satis- 
fied with  a  reason  that  does  not  really  explain.  For 
thousands  of  years  men  were  content  merely  to  know 
that  rain  and  sunshine  made  the  crops  grow;  only  in 
recent  years  have  they  discovered  that  many  other 
things  are  essential,  and  why  different  kinds  of  soil 
are  best  for  different  crops. 

The  scientist  always  takes  keen  pleasure  in  the  dis- 
covery of  a  new  truth.  I  doubt,  indeed,  if  there  is 
any  higher  or  finer  kind  of  pleasure.  So  the  student 
should  take  pleasure,  as  a  rule,  in  the  rolling  away  of 
a  curtain  which  has  hidden  from  him  an  important 
truth.  Even  tho  it  be  a  truth  well  known  to  many 
others,  to  him  it  will  be  a  discovery. 

But  the  subscriber  must  not  expect  always  to  be 
entertained  and  delighted.  Let  him  bear  in  mind  that 
the  Modern  Business  Course  and  Service  has  been 
carefully  planned  by  men  who  have  had  much  experi- 
ence as  teachers  and  that  they  have  sought  to  give  him 
the  benefit  of  their  thinking  and  knowledge  in  the 
best  possible  manner.  The  subscriber  who  "sticks  to 
the  end"  will  be  an  enthusiast  in  the  study  of  business 
problems  in  general  and  of  his  own  in  particular. 


6  INTRODUCTION 

4.  Read  with  ///<•  mind. —  Hooks,  magazines  and 
newspapers  arc  so  cheap  that  there  is  (lunger  lest 
reading  become  a  lost  art.  A  few  centuries  ago, 
when  books  were  scarce,  much  real  reading  was  done. 
Now  we  skim  the  newspapers,  dash  thru  the  maga- 
zines, and  hastily  leap  thru  many  books — and  pride 
ourselves  on  the  fact  that  we  have  read  much. 

But  reading  is  an  art,  and  it  must  be  learned  by  con- 
scious effort.  Just  as  many  a  student  is  likely  to 
think  that  a  teacher  can  pour  information  into  him,  so 
the  average  reader  of  a  book  has  an  idea  that  the 
author  is  going  to  give  him  something  without  any 
effort  on  his  part.     That  cannot  be  done. 

No  one  can  get  anything  worth  while  out  of  a  book 
unless  while  reading  it  with  his  eyes  his  mind  works 
just  as  did  the  author's  mind  when  he  wrote  the  book. 

The  eyes  must  be  thought  of  merely  as  windows 
thru  which  the  mind  looks  and  grasps  and  reproduces 
the  author's  thoughts.  Any  other  kind  of  reading 
is  casual,  desultory,  profitless.  Novels  and  stories 
may  be  read  with  the  intellect  half-asleep,  the  imag- 
ination and  memory  alone  being  really  awake,  but  the 
reading  done  for  the  purpose  of  training  the  under- 
standing must  be  done  by  the  mind  itself.  The  entire 
mind  must  be  awake. 

A  man  may  read  a  chapter  in  psychology  or  politi- 
cal economy  a  dozen  times  and  have  no  understanding 
of  its  contents.  If  he  has  an  unusually  retentive 
memory,  he  may  be  able, to  recite  parts  of  the  chapter 
and  yet  have  no  real  knowledge  of  what  the  author  in- 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS         7 

tended  to  convey.  He  reads  merely  with  his  eyes. 
But  if  he  makes  his  mind  work,  and  if  the  author  is 
not  obscure  in  his  style,  a  single  reading  of  the  same 
chapter  will  make  him  master  of  all  the  author  has 
to  say. 

In  order  to  read  a  book  with  his  mind,  instead  of 
merely  with  his  eyes,  it  is  advisable  for  the  reader 
to  run  over  the  table  of  contents  and  then  read  the 
author's  preface,  trying  in  advance  to  get  some  idea 
of  what  the  book  is  about,  of  what  in  general  the 
author  wishes  to  explain  or  demonstrate.  In  other 
words,  before  you  read,  you  should  make  your  own 
mind  do  some  work.  It  would  be  well  if  you  try  to 
do  some  thinking  yourself  on  the  subject  of  the  book. 
You  might  ask  yourself,  "What  do  I  know  about  this 
subject  anyway?  What  would  I  like  to  know  about 
it?  If  I  had  to  write  a  book  on  this  subject,  of  what 
topics  would  I  treat  and  on  which  would  I  place  spe- 
cial emphasis?" 

The  value  of  this  preparatory  work,  which  may  oc- 
cupy ten  minutes  or  an  hour,  perhaps  longer,  is  that 
it  will  tend  to  get  your  mind  into  working  harness. 
It  will  also  stir  somewhat  your  curiosity  or  interest 
in  the  subject. 

5.  "Gist"  sentences  and  paragraphs. — Next  the 
reader  should  attack  the  first  chapter,  resolved  to 
master  its  contents  as  quickly  as  possible.  In  every 
chapter  the  author  has  tried  to  put  some  truth  which 
the  reader  ought  to  know  and  understand.  Possibly 
the  reader  may  know  it  already;  if  so,  he  will  quickly 


8  INTRODUCTION 

discover  the  fact  and  pass  on  to  the  second  chapter; 
In  it  if  the  content  of  the  chapter  is  new  to  him,  the 
reader  must  search  for  it  as  his  eyes  travel  over  the 
pages.  The  gist  of  the  chapter  may  possibly  be 
round  in  a  single  paragraph's  being  illustrative,  ex- 
planatory or  descriptive.  The  "gist"  paragraph  or 
"gist"  sentence  may  be  at  the  end  or  at  the  beginning 
or  in  the  middle  of  the  chapter.  The  reader's  mind 
must  be  on  the  alert  to  discover  it ;  unless  he  finds  it  the 
chapter  will  contain  many  sentences  that  mean  noth- 
ing at  all  to  him. 

To  help  my  memory  I  have  the  habit  of  using  a  lead 
pencil  freely  in  reading  books  whose  contents  I  wish 
to  absorb  quickly.  On  my  first  reading  I  underscore 
in  pencil,  or  mark  in  the  margin,  sentences  which  at 
first  strike  me  as  important.  Having  finished  read- 
ing a  chapter,  I  can  review  it  in  a  few  minutes,  and 
I  usually  find  that  my  pencil  has  marked  the  "key" 
or  "gist"  sentence  or  sentences  which  unlock  and  dis- 
close all  the  author's  thought. 

6.  Reading  by  the  page. — When  reading  with  the 
mind  it  is  often  possible  to  read  by  the  page,  or  by  the 
paragraph,  instead  of  groping  along  thru  sentence 
after  sentence.  This  method  of  reading  is  advisable 
when  you  already  have  some  knowledge  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  is  adopted  by  most  of  us  when  we  read  news- 
papers and  are  looking  for  important  things,  not  car- 
ing about  details.  It  must  not  be  confused  with  slip- 
shod reading;  the  latter,  which  is  the  bane  of  many 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS         9 

students,  is  hasty  and  careless  reading,  the  mind  not 
being  alert  and  attentive. 

To  read  a  paragraph  rapidly  your  mind  must  be 
wide-awake  to  discover  almost  at  a  glance  whether 
it  contains  something  new  to  you.  Take,  for  exam- 
ple, the  paragraphs  I  have  just  written  on  reading. 
Perhaps  you  have  already  learned  to  read  and  you 
may  have  felt  pretty  sure  that  you  knew  what  I  was 
going  to  say  when  you  saw  the  side-head  "Read  with 
the  mind."  If  so  you  could  very  quickly  find  out  if 
the  paragraphs  following  that  side-head  contained  any 
information  you  did  not  already  possess.  It  might 
not  have  been  necessary  for  you  to  read  every  sen- 
tence and  paragraph  carefully.  But  if  what  I  have 
said  about  reading  has  come  to  you  as  a  surprise,  you 
should  go  over  it  all  carefully  and  thoughtfully;  that 
is,  you  should  read  it  with  your  mind. 

It  may  interest  you  to  know,  by  the  way,  that  the 
German  philosopher,  Immanuel  Kant,  once  said  that 
he  could  get  the  heart  out  of  any  book  he  ever  saw  in 
an  hour.  You  are  not  expected  to  get  the  heart  out 
of  this,  or  of  any  other  of  the  Institute's  books,  in  an 
hour,  for  it  is  not  to  be  presumed  that  you  have  had 
the  intellectual  training  of  a  Kant,  but  I  do  advise  that 
you  try  to  find  out  just  what  Kant  meant  by  his  re- 
mark, and  do  some  thinking  on  how  he  would  go 
about  it  to  get  the  heart  out  of  a  book  in  an  hour. 

If  you  attack  this  little  problem  resolutely  and  do 
not  give  it  up  because  you  cannot  reach  a  solution 


10  INTRODUCTION 

immediately,  or  even  after  six  months  of  thinking  and 
experimenting,  you  will  achieve  results  that  will  sur- 
prise you.  There  is  no  short-cut  method  of  learn- 
ing the  art.  You  must  learn  it  by  diligent  practice, 
and  you  should  practise  it  while  reading  the  literature 
of  the  Institute  by  seeing  how  quickly  you  can  get 
"the  heart"  out  of  a  given  chapter  or  lecture. 

7.  Concentration. — What  I  have  said  about  read- 
ing with  the  mind  rather  than  with  the  eyes  alone, 
could  have  been  said  with  equal  pertinence  under  the 
head  of  "Concentration."  This  word  comes  from  the 
Latin  and  means  bringing  things  to  a  common  cen- 
ter. We  mentally  concentrate  when  we  focus  our 
powers  of  mind  upon  any  one  thought  or  problem. 
The  man  who  has  a  very  retentive  memory  sometimes 
relies  upon  it  too  much,  failing  to  make  use  of  his 
judgment  or  imagination.  When  he  faces  an  emer- 
gency, he  remembers  what  he  has  read  about  the  best 
procedure  under  such  circumstances  and  acts  without 
giving  his  judgment  a  chance  to  advise  or  his  imagina- 
tion a  chance  to  invent  a  new  and  better  method.  He 
fails  to  concentrate  and  so  fails  to  become  an  origina- 
tor. Such  a  man  in  business  is  likely  to  be  a  mere 
imitator,  and  may  never  become  a  great  success  be- 
cause of  his  failure  to  take  advantage  of  new  condi- 
tions. 

Memory  is  a  most  useful  servant  and  should  not  be 
neglected,  but  the  man  who  makes  all  of  his  faculties 
work  realizes  that  memory  carries,  as  it  were,  only 
second-hand  goods.     He  who  uses  memory  merely 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS       11 

as  an  aid  to  judgment  and  imagination  concentrates, 
and  he  is  the  man  who  achieves  real  success  in  business. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  in  reading  the  pages 
of  this  Introduction  your  mind  should  be  in  a  state  of 
concentration.  Your  judgment,  that  is,  your  intel- 
lect, should  be  weighing  the  correctness  and  soundness 
of  my  statements.  Your  imagination  should  be  plac- 
ing on  the  screen  many  pictures,  say  of  yourself  or  a 
friend  seeking  to  get  the  heart  out  of  a  chapter,  or 
of  yourself  as  you  will  be  five  years  hence  when  you 
will  read  like  Immanuel  Kant.  Your  memory  may 
jog  you  now  and  then  with  a  reminder  that  you  have 
read  something  like  this  in  another  book,  or  that  you 
yourself  have  had  an  experience  which  in  some  way 
confirms  some  of  my  statements. 

8.  On  being  interested. — In  order  to  get  much 
benefit  out  of  any  study  a  man  must  really  want  to 
know,  he  must  be  curious;  the  greater  his  curiosity 
the  greater  will  be  his  zest  in  his  study.  Studying  a 
subject  in  which  we  are  not  interested  merely  results 
in  weariness. 

A  subscriber  ambitious  to  make  the  most  of  him- 
self in  business,  even  tho  in  the  past  he  has  found 
study  dull  and  books  dreary,  should  not  lose  heart. 
The  fact  that  he  did  not  like  study  at  school  and  was 
never  interested  in  books,  preferring  always  to  learn 
everything  by  doing  and  by  observation,  is  not  evi- 
dence that  he  will  not  be  really  interested  in  the  think- 
ing and  reading  which  the  Institute  will  strive  to  make 
him  do.     If  he  has  taken  up  the  task  languidly,  his 

1—3 


12  INTRODUCTION 

tirst  job  must  be  to  convince  himself  that  he  cannot 
get  on  in  the  world  as  he  ought  to  unless  he  goes  thru 
the  Modern  Business  Course  conscientiously.  Let 
liini  put  behind  him  the  notion  that  success  of  any 
kind  ever  comes  as  the  result  of  luck  or  chance.  If  he 
follows  the  Course  of  the  Institute,  he  will  have  no 
doubt  upon  that  score.  Success  in  business  comes 
only  to  those  who  work  hard  and  do  clear  thinking. 
If  the  subscriber  is  in  earnest  and  is  willing  to  pay  the 
price,  namely,  that  of  work  and  concentration,  he  will 
find  himself  getting  more  and  more  interested  as  he 
pursues  the  Course. 

9.  Clear  thinking. — In  the  foregoing  pages  I  have 
occasionally  made  references  to  clear  thinking,  science, 
scientific  training,  knowledge  and  understanding.  It 
is  well  for  us  at  the  outset  to  get  the  correct  mean- 
ing of  these  expressions. 

I  have  frequently  asked  college  seniors  to  define 
the  words  "think"  and  "cause,"  and  I  have  rarely  got 
a  satisfactory  reply.  The  answers  are  too  often  ex- 
amples of  muddled  thinking.  A  man,  to  be  sure,  may 
think  clearly  and  yet  not  be  able  to  explain  what  he 
means  by  clear  thinking.  However,  it  helps  us  to 
keep  our  thinking  clear  if  we  know  exactly  what  it 
is  and  some  of  the  common  difficulties  in  the  way  of  it. 
The  average  man  may  suppose  he  is  thinking  when  he 
is  only  dreaming  or  letting  his  fancy  construct  air- 
castles.  Others  suppose  they  are  thinking  when  they 
are  just  sitting  idly  while  images  of  this  and  that  thing 
seen  and  remembered  pass  thru  consciousness.     They 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS       13 

are  not  thinking  at  all;  they  are  enjoying  a  memory 
movie. 

Thinking  is  not  an  idle,  lazy,  passive  mental  occu- 
pation. It  is  strenuous  work  of  the  intellect.  The 
aim  of  thinking  is  understanding.  The  mind  is  look- 
ing for  an  explanation  of  something  that  it  does  not 
understand.  It  is  seeking  to  throw  light  into  a  dark 
place. 

When  do  we  understand  anything?  When  are  we 
able  to  explain  it  ?  Not  until  we  know  precisely  what 
is  its  cause.  If  the  price  of  copper  declines,  we  do 
not  understand  it  and  cannot  explain  it  until  we  know 
the  cause  of  the  decline.  We  may  learn  that  new 
copper  mines  have  been  discovered,  and  that  the 
world's  output  of  copper  has  been  greatly  increased. 
Then  we  are  satisfied,  for  our  mind  has  discovered  a 
cause  which  explains  the  decline  of  price. 

But  our  mind  must  not  be  too  easily  satisfied.  We 
must  be  as  sure  as  possible,  if  our  thinking  is  to  be 
clear,  that  we  have  found  the  real  cause  of  the  phe- 
nomenon we  are  studying.  Nearly  all  phenomena 
in  the  world  of  nature,  as  well  as  in  the  world  of 
business,  are  the  results  of  a  combination  of  forces. 
We  do  not  do  clear  thinking  if  we  neglect  any  of 
them. 

10.  Meaning  of  "cause." — We  should,  first  of  all, 
do  some  clear  thinking  about  the  word  "cause."  Most 
people  have  hazy  ideas  about  it.  Quite  commonly  it 
is  thought  of  as  that  which  brings  a  tiling  into  exist- 
ence; but  that  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  a 


14  INTRODUCTION 

cause  of  any  event  is  something  which  causes  it  to  be. 
We  cannot  accept  such  a  definition. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  know  very  little  about  real 
causes,  that  is,  those  forces  which  bring  change  into 
the  world.  All  we  know  is  that  under  certain  condi- 
tions, certain  things  always  have  happened;  that  cer- 
tain events  are  always  followed  by  certain  others. 
We  know,  for  example,  that  a  kettle  of  cold  water 
placed  over  a  fire  will  soon  give  us  the  phenomenon 
of  boiling.  The  first  phenomenon — fire — is  the  cause 
of  the  second  phenomenon — boiling.  Our  mind,  be- 
ing still  curious,  asks  why  the  water  boils;  what  is  the 
cause  of  it.  We  discover  that  many  substances  ex- 
pand when  heated,  and  we  call  this  fact  a  scientific 
law.  Then  we  say  water  boils  because  the  heated 
water  at  the  bottom  of  the  kettle,  being  lightest,  rushes 
to  the  top.  But  the  scientific  mind  is  still  curious. 
Why  does  heat  make  water  or  any  other  substance 
expand?  To  find  an  answer  to  this  question,  the  mind 
goes  into  a  realm  of  speculation  which  we  need  not 
enter. 

You  are  thinking  when  you  are  seeking  for  the 
causes  of  jjhenomena. 

By  cause  is  meant  that  phenomenon  or  combina- 
tion of  phenomena  which  observation  and  experience 
have  shown  always  to  be  followed  by  the  phenomenon 
you  are  studying.  To  make  your  thinking  clear  and 
"scientific,"  you  must  beware  of  conventional  explana- 
tions and  be  certain  of  your  facts.  The  well-known 
belief  in  some  quarters  that  a  "wet"  moon  indicates 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS       15 

rain,  or  that  a  dry  spell  cannot  be  broken  until  the 
moon  changes,  is  not  the  product  of  clear  or  scientific 
thinking.  Furthermore,  the  memories  of  the  people 
who  believe  such  things  are  not  to  be  trusted,  as  they 
fail  altogether  to  note  or  remember  the  occasions  when 
their  so-called  "law"  did  not  work. 

11.  Definition  of  science. — The  word  "science"  is 
very  loosely  used  in  everyday  speech.  It  is  derived 
from  a  Latin  word  meaning  "to  know"  and  is  com- 
monly applied  to  any  kind  of  knowledge  which  is  be- 
lieved to  be  exact  and  precise.  A  favorite  dictionary 
definition  is  "classified  knowledge."  Let  us  get  a 
clearer  idea  of  what  the  word  means. 

As  we  have  already  shown,  we  do  not  understand 
any  event  or  phenomenon  unless  we  know  its  cause. 
Until  we  get  at  the  cause  we  cannot  explain  anything 
in  a  way  satisfactory  to  ourselves  or  to  other  people. 
The  word  "explain"  might  properly  be  defined  as  fol- 
lows: To  make  any  fact  or  occurrence  intelligible 
by  showing  what  caused  it.  And  the  word  "under- 
stand" means:  To  perceive  or  grasp  a  phenomenon 
(that  is,  fact,  event  or  occurrence)  in  all  its  impor- 
tant causal  relationships. 

I  have  purposely  used  some  so-called  scientific 
phrases  in  the  foregoing  paragraph,  for  I  want  the 
reader  to  become  familiar  with  them.  They  are  con- 
venient tools  of  expression  when  one  wants  to  be  ex- 
act, and  are  not  at  all  difficult  to  understand.  The 
word  "phenomenon"  (of  which  the  plural  is  phenom- 
ena)   the    reader    will    find    frequently    in    scientific 


16  INTRODUCTION 

treatises.  It  comes  from  a  Greek  word  meaning  "to 
appear."  The  meaning  is  very  broad.  Anything 
which  affects  the  senses  and  so  makes  an  im- 
pression upon  the  mind  is  a  phenomenon.  To  the 
scientist  any  object  or  occurrence  is  a  phenomenon, 
whether  it  be  usual  or  unusual,  ordinary  or  extraordi- 
nary. It  is  the  scientist's  word  for  thing  or  happen- 
ing. 

A  science  is  any  body  of  knowledge  in  a  given  field 
so  arranged  or  classified  that  the  phenomena  can  be 
understood.  The  goal  of  science  is  understanding, 
and  a  man  is  doing  scientific  work  when  he  is  search- 
ing for  the  causes  of  phenomena.  If  he  is  merely 
collecting  facts  and  classifying  his  knowledge  of  them, 
he  may  be  a  statistician  or  historian  or  annalist,  but  not 
a  scientist,  for  he  may  not  be  seeking  to  explain  or 
interpret  the  facts.  The  real  aim  of  science  is  to  ex- 
plain phenomena  by  discovering  their  causes.  His- 
tory is  a  science,  therefore,  in  so  far  as  it  points  out 
why  certain  events  took  place.  Tire  historian  who 
merely  tells  what  happened  in  certain  years,  without 
undertaking  to  make  clear  why  events  happened  as 
they  did,  is  a  narrator  or  annalist,  not  a  historian  in 
the  scientific  sense. 

A  man  whose  memory  holds  many  facts  may  be 
called  a  man  of  much  learning  or  knowledge,  yet  he 
may  have  little  acquaintance  with  science.  He  be- 
comes scientific  when  he  groups  his  facts  into  classes 
according  to  their  likenesses  and  seeks  to  explain  them 
by  inquiry  into  their  relations  as  causes  and  effects. 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS       17 

Science  is  specially  concerned  with  the  so-called  chain 
of  cause  and  effect. 

Emerson  says,  "We  all  have  facts  enough;  what  we 
need  is  the  heat  that  dissolves  the  facts." 

12.  Three  ways  of  getting  knowledge. — Knowledge 
comes  either  from  perceiving  a  phenomenon  or  from 
understanding  it.  A  man  who  has  seen  many  things 
happen,  or  who  has  read  carefully  some  history  of 
the  United  States,  has  acquired  knowledge  of  the  first 
sort  if  he  has  a  retentive  memory.  If  he  has  gone  be- 
yond the  facts  that  he  has  seen  and  has  discovered  their 
causes,  or  has  studied  the  forces  which  have  shaped  the 
development  of  the  United  States,  he  has  that  higher 
kind  of  knowledge  which  is  called  scientific.  He  is 
then  a  man  not  merely  of  knowledge  but  also  of  un- 
derstanding. 

To  store  the  mind  with  a  large  knowledge  of  facts 
and  phenomena,  a  man  must  evidently  cultivate  his 
powers  of  observation  and  memory.  Both  these  fac- 
ulties are  exceedingly  valuable.  A  man  in  whom 
they  are  weak  is  not  likely  to  do  clear  thinking  for 
the  reason  that  he  will  never  be' certain  about  his  facts, 
but  it  is  easy  to  overestimate  the  importance  of  these 
faculties,  for  learning,  that  is,  the  mere  knowledge  of 
a  large  number  of  facts,  or  the  ability  to  recall  histori- 
cal dates,  produces  a  great  impression,  especially 
among  the  uneducated.  A  man  of  excellent  memory 
seems  to  be  very  wise,  yet  he  who  devotes  most  of  his 
energy  to  gathering  and  recording  facts,  neglecting  to 
inquire  into  their  scientific  meaning,  that  is,  not  seek- 


18  INTRODUCTION 

ing  to  understand  them,  is  never  really  a  wise  man. 
If  the  facts  or  the  information  which  he  collects  are 
arranged  in  such  order  that  they  can  be  utilized  by 
others  as  a  basis  for  thinking,  he  is  a  servant  of  science 
and  is  helping  to  add  to  our  real  knowledge  of  things. 

AVhat  I  have  just  called  real  knowledge  of  things  is 
knowledge  of  the  higher  sort,  namely,  understanding. 
Sometimes  this  knowledge  is  called  truth-;  it  is  the 
object  of  all  real  thinking. 

The  mind  arrives  at  truth  in  three  different  ways: 
First,  thru  intuition,  a  word  derived  from  the  Latin 
meaning  "to  see  into";  second,  by  experience  or,  as 
the  philosophers  call  it,  by  induction,  from  two  Latin 
words  meaning  "lead  into";  or  third,  by  logical  rea- 
soning or  deduction,  a  Latin  word  meaning  "leading 
from."  These  three  methods  of  acquiring  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth,  or  an  understanding  of  facts,  are 
fully  explained  and  illustrated  in  any  ordinary  treatise 
upon  logic.  Here  I  will  undertake  to  give  only  a  gen- 
eral idea  of  their  nature.  If  a  subscriber  is  specially 
interested,  he  can  easily  pursue  the  subject  after  he 
has  finished  the  Institute's  Course. 

13.  Intuition. — There  are  certain  truths  which  the 
human  intellect  perceives  without  effort.  In  mathe- 
matics such  truths  are  called  axioms ;  in  philosophy,  in- 
nate ideas.  We  know  that  two  parallel  lines  can  never 
meet;  that  a  straight  line  is  the  shortest  distance  be- 
tween two  points ;  that  the  sum  of  the  parts  cannot  ex- 
ceed the  whole,  and  so  on.  We  know,  too,  that  space 
is  endless,  that  if  we  could  fly  thru  the  ether,  we  might 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS       19 

travel  for  all  time  in  any  direction  and  never  come  to 
the  boundaries  of  the  universe.  These  truths,  which 
the  philosophers  call  "innate"  or  "inborn,"  are  said  to 
be  got  by  intuition.  The  mind  instantly  perceives  the 
truth  of  a  mathematical  axiom  and  cannot  possibly 
conceive  of  its  opposite  being  true.  Mathematics, 
philosophy  and  metaphysics  are  entirely  built  upon 
truths  obtained  thru  intuition. 

14.  Deduction  or  a  priori  reasoning. — If  you  have 
studied  geometry,  you  will  easily  understand  the  na- 
ture of  the  process  of  reasoning  called  deduction,  for 
this  process  is  illustrated  in  the  demonstration  of  every 
theorem.  Deduction  is  a  reasoning  from  the  general 
to  the  particular.  The  stock  illustration  is :  Man  is 
mortal;  John  Smith  is  a  man;  therefore  John  Smith 
is  mortal.  Reasoning  of  this  style  is  called  a  syllo- 
gism, of  which  the  first  clause  is  the  major  premise,  the 
second  the  minor  premise,  and  the  last  the  conclusion. 

Man  would  know  very  little  about  the  outer  world 
if  he  had  to  rely  exclusively  upon  deduction  and  in- 
tuition. He  would  have  at  hand  only  a  few  major 
premises,  namely,  those  furnished  by  intuition,  and 
would  be  able  to  develop  only  the  so-called  pure 
sciences,  by  which  is  meant  those  sciences,  such  as 
mathematics,  the  truths  of  which  are  independent  of 
our  sense  impressions.  Deduction  as  a  source  of 
knowledge  is  chiefly  valuable  when  employed  in  con- 
nection with  experience  or  induction. 

15.  Experience,  or  induction. — Most  of  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  world  in  which  we  live  has  been  obtained 


20  INTRODUCTION 

thru  the  five  senses.     In  logic,  the  process  is  called 
induction. 

How  do  you  know  that  boiling  an  egg  for  five  min- 
utes will  make  it  hard?  Or  that  boiling  potatoes  for 
twenty  minutes  will  make  them  soft  and  edible?  You 
know  it  solely  because  you  have  tried  the  experiment, 
of  because  you  know  some  one  else  has.  If  a  cook 
should  boil  an  egg  five  minutes  and  should  find  it  very 
soft,  she  would  be  very  much  astonished.  She  would 
doubtless  suspect  the  accuracy  of  her  clock  or  of  her 
eyesight,  and  if  the  strange  event  happened  fre- 
quently, she  might,  especially  if  she  were  superstitious, 
think  the  house  bewitched  and  give  notice. 

Yet  nobody  really  knows  absolutely  that  boiling  an 
egg  five  minutes  will  make  its  contents  hard.  All  we 
know  is  that  in  the  past  when  eggs  were  boiled  five 
minutes  they  did  become  hard.  So  we  have  assumed 
it  to  be  a  law  that  to  boil  an  egg  for  that  length  of 
time  will  make  it  hard. 

If  a  man  decides  to  commit  suicide  by  jumping 
from  a  high  building,  he  believes  that  his  body 
will  go  to  the  ground  and  not  up  toward  the  clouds. 
Yet  he  does  not  absolutely  know  that.  All  he  really 
knows  is  that  in  the  past  when  a  man  has  sprung  from 
a  height  his  body  has  gone  down,  not  up. 

All  of  our  knowledge  of  the  external  world  is  of 
this  sort,  namely,  inductive,  for  it  is  based  upon  ex- 
perience. We  assume  that  the  laws  of  nature  will  not 
change,  and  that  things  today  will  happen  as  they  did 
yesterday  if  all  conditions  are  the  same. 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS        21 

If  for  several  years  a  farmer  applies  nitrates  and 
phosphates  to  one  field  and  not  to  another,  and  uni- 
formly gets  a  better  crop  off  the  first  field  than  off  the 
other,  he  concludes  that  these  chemicals  are  good  fer- 
tilizers and  that  he  will  get  a  larger  crop  if  he  uses 
them  than  if  he  does  not. 

We  observe  that  immoderate  consumers  of  alco- 
holic beverages  frequently  get  red  noses  and  watery 
eyes.  If  we  meet  a  stranger  with  a  red  nose  and  wat- 
ery eyes,  involuntarily  we  conclude  that  he  is  an  al- 
coholic. 

If  you  examine  these  illustrations,  you  will  find  that 
in  every  instance  a  general  conclusion  or  inference  has 
been  reached  which  has  for  its  basis  a  number  of  ob- 
servations or  experiences.  The  fact  that  boiling  an 
egg  five  minutes  has  always  made  it  hard,  leads  us  to 
the  general  conclusion  that  such  will  always  be  the 
case.  That  method  of  arriving  at  knowledge  is  called 
induction,  a  reasoning  from  particulars  up  to  the  gen- 
eral. 

16.  Induction  and  deduction  work  together. — Most 
of  our  knowledge  is  obtained  by  the  combined  use  of 
induction  and  deduction.  The  two  methods,  so  to 
speak,  pull  together  like  a  team  of  horses,  one  helping 
the  other.  Having  learned  from  experience  what 
usually  follows  the  appearance  of  heavy  black  clouds, 
thunder  and  lightning,  men  have  drawn  the  conclusion 
that  these  phenomena  indicate  rain.  This  is  an  in- 
duction. If  we  see  the  sky  heavily  clouded  and  hear 
thunder,  we  say  it  is  going  to  rain.     This  is  deduc- 


£<2  INTRODUCTION 

tion,  the  major  premise  of  which  is:  Black  clouds 
and  thunder  are  followed  by  rain;  and  the  minor  pre- 
mise: There  are  now  black  clouds  and  thunder;  hence 
the  conclusion:  We  shall  have  rain.  So  in  most  of 
our  conclusions  with  respect  to  ordinary  everyday  af- 
fairs. We  are  constantly  drawing  conclusions  in 
which  both  induction  and  deduction  are  employed. 
In  this  rain  illustration  we  get  our  general  proposi- 
tion with  regard  to  the  sequence  of  thunder  and  rain 
thru  induction,  but  we  reach  our  particular  conclu- 
sion by  deduction. 

Let  us  take  another  illustration.  A  man  is  brought 
into  court  accused  of  being  a  sneak  thief.  The  magis- 
trate has  had  experience  with  sneak  thieves,  let  us 
suppose,  and  has  observed  that  their  lips  are  usually 
thin,  that  their  eyes  are  close  together,  and  that  they 
will  not  look  at  you  steadily.  By  induction  he  has 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  men  possessing  these  traits 
are  inclined  to  thievery.  He  notes  that  the  prisoner 
at  the  bar  has  all  these  traits  and  by  deduction  he  is 
prejudiced  against  him.  Unconsciously  his  mind 
works  out  this  syllogism:  Men  of  thin  lips  and  fur- 
tive, narrow  eyes  are  sneak  thieves;  the  prisoner  has 
thin  lips  and  furtive,  narrow  eyes;  therefore,  he  is  a 
sneak  thief.  You  will  say  that  the  magistrate  is 
prejudiced,  and  that  he  ought  not  to  let  his  mind  be  in- 
fluenced in  the  way  I  have  indicated,  but  he  cannot 
help  it.  As  an  honest  judge,  he  will  do  his  best  to 
weigh  in  the  balance  the  evidence  for  and  against  the 
prisoner,  but  back  of  all  the  evidence  there  will  be  that 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS       23 

"sub-conscious"  judgment,  and  it  will  not  work  to 
the  prisoner's  advantage. 

17.  Hypothesis. — The  uncritical  mind  may  be  led 
into  error  by  either  induction  or  deduction,  but  most 
of  our  mistakes,  prejudices  and  wrong  ideas  are  due 
to  our  careless  use  of  the  inductive  method.  People 
observe  a  few  facts  and  then  "jump"  to  a  conclusion. 
Their  minds  being  untrained,  they  often  cling  to  their 
conclusions  with  great  obstinacy  and  refuse  to  listen 
when  anybody  seeks  to  enlighten  them.  Hence  we 
find  people  still  carrying  horse-chestnuts  in  their 
pockets  to  prevent  rheumatism,  wearing  amber  beads 
about  their  necks  to  ward  off  a  sore  throat,  confident 
that  a  "wet"  moon  indicates  rain,  or  sure  that  olive 
oil,  being  "oil,"  cannot  possibly  be  palatable  as  food. 

Since  all  inductions  are  liable  to  imperfections,  the 
scientific  man  submits  them  to  tests  before  he  accepts 
them  as  truths.  In  certain  fields,  especially  chemis- 
try, physics  and  bacteriology,  inductions  are  tested  in 
the  laboratory.  In  other  sciences,  such  as  economics 
and  sociology,  laboratory  tests  are  impossible.  Stu- 
dents of  these  sciences  can  test  their  conclusions  only 
by  repeated  observations  of  events  in  the  actual  world, 
but  here  satisfactory  tests  are  difficult  because  the 
same  event  never  occurs  twice  under  exactly  the  same 
conditions. 

The  scientific  man,  seeking  an  explanation  of  a  phe- 
nomenon frequently  recurring  in  nature,  constructs 
what  is  called  an  hypothesis,  which  is  merely  a  guess 
at  the  truth.     He  assumes  that  the  phenomenon  is  the 


M  INTRODUCTION 

result  of  certain  conditions,  and  that  when  these  con- 
ditions exist  this  phenomenon  will  inevitably  follow; 
then  he  proceeds  to  make  observations  to  confirm  his 
hypothesis  if  possible.  If  he  finds  that  his  guess  is 
correct  so  far  as  all  his  observations  go  and  that  the 
phenomenon  never  occurs  excepting  under  the  condi- 
tions which  he  has  "guessed"  to  be  necessary,  he  will 
conclude  that  he  has  reached  the  truth.  Then  his 
hypothesis  will  have  risen  to  the  dignity  of  a  theory 
or  law  of  nature. 

18.  Theory. — The  theory  of  evolution  by  natural 
selection  was  at  first  only  a  scientific  guess  on  Dar- 
win's part.  It  occurred  to  him  as  a  reasonable  hy- 
pothesis when  he  read  a  book  by  Thomas  Malthus  on 
the  "Theory  of  Population,"  in  which  Malthus  showed 
that  the  tendency  of  population  was  to  increase  faster 
than  the  food  supply,  so  that  the  weakest  perished  and 
the  strongest  survived.  Darwin  made  observations  of 
animal  life  with  infinite  patience,  and  it  is  generally 
believed  that  the  truth  of  his  hypothesis  has  been 
proved.     It  is  now  called  the  "theory  of  evolution." 

For  many  years  men  observed  such  phenomena  as 
the  falling  apple,  but  nobody  so  far  as  we  know, 
sought  for  an  explanation  until  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury Xewton's  curiosity  was  aroused.  This  is  really 
not  strange,  for  the  human  mind  is  least  curious 
about  the  phenomena  with  which  it  is  most  familiar. 
Air  and  water,  the  two  substances  most  essential  to 
our  life  and  health,  received  no  scientific  attention  un- 
til within  recent  years ;  in  fact,  scientists  still  seem  to 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS       25 

be  in  doubt,  not  as  to  the  nature  of  air,  but  as  to  the 
evil  effects  of  impure  air  and  the  best  method  for  its 
purification  by  ventilation. 

The  theory  of  gravitation  was  first  an  hypothesis  or 
guess  in  Newton's  mind.  "If  I  can  assume  that  bod- 
ies of  matter,"  he  said  to  himself,  "attract  each  other 
mutually  in  proportion  to  their  size  and  density  and 
inversely  as  the  squares  of  their  distance,  the  laws  of 
motion  being  true,  then  I  should  be  able  to  calculate 
aright  the  orbit  of  each  planet  in  the  solar  system." 

Newton  first  tested  the  truth  of  his  law  by  a  study 
of  the  moon's  orbit,  but  at  that  time,  1665,  the  exact 
distance  of  the  earth  from  the  moon  was  not  known 
and  his  calculations  were  not  entirely  satisfactory. 
Before  his  death,  however,  the  size  of  the  earth  and  its 
distance  from  the  moon  had  been  accurately  deter- 
mined and  Newton  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing 
that  his  law  of  gravitation  had  been  verified.  In  1845, 
a  young  French  astronomer  named  Leverrier,  puz- 
zling over  the  erratic  behavior  of  the  planet  Uranus, 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  must  be  under  the  in- 
fluence of  an  undiscovered  planet  located  in  a  certain 
part  of  the  heavens.  He  had  no  telescope  powerful 
enough  to  bring  this  unknown  planet  into  the  field  of 
vision,  but  he  wrote  to  an  astronomer  in  Berlin  and 
told  him  in  what  direction  to  turn  his  powerful  tele- 
scope. The  German  astronomer  followed  directions 
and  within  half  an  hour  found  the  new  planet  almost 
exactly  where  Leverrier  had  indicated.  It  was  the 
planet  we  now  know  as  Neptune.     It  was  discovered 


26  INTRODUCTION 

as  the  result  of  deductive  or  a  priori  reasoning  based, 
on  an  induction,  namely,  Newton's  law  of  gravitation. 

19.  Three  .steps  in  thinking. — Note  that  in  scien- 
tific thinking  there  are  three  important  steps :  First, 
the  collection  of  facts  or  phenomena  thru  observation 
or  experience;  second,  the  tentative  explanation  of 
those  phenomena  by  an  hypothesis  or  scientific  guess ; 
third,  the  confirmation  of  this  hypothesis  by  patient 
observation  of  the  phenomena  as  they  occur  in  nature. 
Note  also  that  the  hypothesis,  if  finally  confirmed  and 
generally  accepted,  is  known  as  a  theory  or  law,  a  nat- 
ural law  being  merely  a  statement  of  the  order  in 
which  phenomena  inevitably  follow  one  another.  The 
laws  of  a  science  are  often  called  its  fundamental  prin- 
ciples. For  example,  the  laws  of  motion  and  the  law 
of  gravitation  are  fundamental  principles  of  physics. 
Without  a  comprehension  of  them  no  man  can  explain 
the  simplest  phenomenon  of  the  physical  world. 

The  foregoing  discussion  of  reasoning  processes 
may  seem  irrelevant,  unnecessary  and  wearisome  to 
some  of  my  readers.     But  it  was  necessary. 

The  phenomena  of  business  are  determined  by  laws 
or  fundamental  principles,  and  it  is  important  that 
every  subscriber  of  the  Alexander  Hamilton  Institute 
should  understand  how  these  laws  are  discovered  and 
applied. 

20.  Prejudice. — The  hero  of  "Pilgrim's  Progress," 
that  wonderful  allegory  written  by  John  Bunyan 
while  in  prison,  was  beset  by  numerous  enemies  who 
drew  near  to  him  in  the  guise  of  friends,  but  he  re- 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS       27 

buffed  them  all  and  finally  reached  his  journey's  end. 
Some  of  the  worst  enemies  of  the  man  who  is  seeking 
for  the  truth  will  appeal  to  him  as  old  friends  in  whom 
he  has  had  great  confidence. 

One  of  the  worst  of  these  enemies  is  Prejudice, 
which  is  a  cherished  belief  based  on  reiterated  hearsay 
or  tradition.  Voltaire  called  it  "the  reason  of  fools." 
Boys  are  taught  to  believe  what  they  are  told  by  their 
elders,  especially  their  teachers  and  parents.  The 
average  American  boy  grows  up  with  many  beliefs 
firmly  rooted  in  his  mind.  He  is  sure  that  the  United 
States  is  the  greatest  country  in  the  world;  that  its 
soldiers  are  the  bravest,  its  railroad  trains  the 
fastest,  and  its*boys  the  cleverest.  Nobody  could  pos- 
sibly cook  better  than  his  mother.  The  church  his 
father  and  mother  belong  to  is  certainly  the  best  one. 
How  strange  that  people  should  belong  to  any  other ! 

The  boy  sheds  many  of  his  prejudices  when  he  be- 
comes a  man,  but  he  accumulates  others  when  he  goes 
into  business.  His  first  employer  may  exaggerate 
the  value  of  shrewdness  and  the  boy  get  a  prejudice 
against  candor  and  square  dealing.  As  he  continues 
in  business  he  will  get  crude  ideas  about  the  money 
question,  banking,  the  cause  of  high  prices,  railroad 
rates,  or  about  the  tyranny  of  capital  over  labor. 

Very  few  men  do  any  real  thinking,  yet  all  of  them 
entertain  very  positive  convictions  on  many  subjects, 
and  those  who  know  the  least  are  usually  the  most 
positive. 

No  man  likes  to  part  with  an  old  and  long  cherished 

1—4 


28  INTRODUCTION 

belief.  It  is  as  dear  to  him  as  an  old  friend.  When 
he  reads  a  book  that  demolishes  one  of  his  pet  beliefs, 
lie  is  in  a  hostile  mood  at  once  and  is  likely  to  throw 
the  book  down  in  disgust,  denouncing  the  author  as  a 
mere  theorist  who  does  not  know  what  he  is  writing 
about. 

Our  subscriber  must  guard  against  prejudice.  He 
must  resolve  at  the  outset  to  drop  any  of  his  precon- 
ceived opinions  or  prejudices  if  an  author  shows  that 
they  are  not  based  on  facts  correctly  interpreted.  In 
other  words,  he  must  pursue  the  Modern  Business 
Course  with  an  open  mind,  eager  to  be  rid  of  ignorance 
and  to  know  the  truth.  On  the  other  hand,  he  must 
not  accept  as  true  whatever  an  author  says  unless  he 
is  convinced.  If  an  author's  statement  does  not  seem 
reasonable,  let  him  question-mark  it  and  make  it  a 
problem  for  his  own  mind  to  work  out.  If  he  returns 
to  the  problem  from  time  to  time,  he  will  either  dis- 
cover the  fallacy  or  error  in  the  author's  reasoning  or 
will  conclude  after  all  that  the  author  is  right.  Un- 
happily, if  the  doubted  statement  runs  counter  to  a 
cherished  prejudice,  the  subscriber  will  be  sorely 
tempted  to  condemn  offhand  the  author's  judgment 
and  then  give  no  more  thought  to  it.  That  is  why 
prejudice  is  an  enemy  against  whom  all  of  us  must  be 
on  our  guard. 

21.  The  mere  theorist. — There  is  a  very  common 
prejudice  in  business  circles  against  the  word  "theory." 
If  a  college  professor  after  long  study  of  transporta- 
tion or  banking  reaches  a  conclusion  which  is  at  vari- 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS       29 

ance  with  the  ideas  of  men  in  business,  his  opinion  at 
first  receives  little  attention  and  less  respect.  You 
will  hear  men  say,  "He  is  all  right  as  a  professor,,  but 
he  is  too  theoretical ;  he  does  not  really  know  what  he 
is  talking  about."  Or  it  will  be  something  like  this: 
"He  is  only  a  theorist;  a  man  can't  understand  this 
business  unless  he  is  really  in  it ;  I  want  the  ideas  of  a 
practical  man."  The  subscriber  must  rid  himself  of 
any  prejudice  against  the  word  "theory."  All  our 
worth-while  knowledge  of  the  outer  world  is  based 
upon  theory.  The  law  of  gravitation  is  a  theory.  No 
man  ever  saw  it  actually  in  operation.  When  a  man 
falls  from  a  height,  according  to  Newton's  law,  the 
earth  is  drawn  toward  him,  as  well  as  he  toward  the 
earth.  But  no  man  in  falling  is  conscious  of  the 
earth's  rising  toward  him — unless  he  is  drunk.  Our 
railroads,  steamships,  bridges  and  factories  with  all 
their  machinery  have  been  constructed  in  harmony 
with  theories  that  have  been  carefully  thought  out  and 
tested.  If  man  theorized  no  more  and  began  to  for- 
get what  theory  has  already  taught  him,  in  a  few  gen- 
erations the  human  race  would  again  be  in  a  state  of, 
barbarism. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  very  worst  theories  in  the 
world  are  found  in  the  ranks  of  uneducated,  "prac- 
tical" men.  Some  of  the  most  theoretical  and  absurd 
plans  for  the  betterment  of  the  banking  system  of  the 
United  States  have  come  from  practical  men,  some  of 
whom  are  engaged  in  the  business  of  banking,  and 
they  all  insist  that  they  as  "practical"  men  are  much 


30  INTRODUCTION 

better  qualified  to  devise  a  good  banking  system  than 
any  mere  theorist.  That  they  themselves  are  rank 
theorists,  building  structures  without  foundations  and 
in  violation  of  fundamental  principles,  is  a  fact  the 
truth  of  which  they  would  not  for  a  moment  consider. 
I  have  talked  with  many  such  men  on  the  money  ques- 
tion and  on  banking  and  have  always  found  them  not 
only  unable  to  think  clearly,  but  also  ignorant  of  the 
ABC  principles  of  the  science  of  which  they  claim 
to  be  masters  because  of  their  practical  experience. 
By  ABC  principles  I  mean  those  laws  or  statements 
of  truth  which  the  impartial  and  unprejudiced  mind 
immediately  accepts  as  true  when  they  are  clearly 
stated. 

The  theorist  to  be  shunned  is  the  man  Mho  con- 
structs his  theory  without  carefully  sifting  his  facts 
and  confirming  his  conclusions.  The  colored  parson 
in  Virginia  who  refused  to  believe  that  the  earth  moves 
around  the  sun  was  a  practical  theorist.  He  rose 
early  in  the  morning  and  had  many  times  seen  the 
sun  swing  around  the  earth.  He  had  positive  evi- 
dence that  the  mere  theorists  were  all  wrong.  He 
was  a  practical  theorist  and  knew  better. 

22.  Does  study  pay? — The  business  man  who  reads, 
studies  and  trains  his  mind  merely  because  he  hopes 
thereby  to  increase  his  ability  to  make  money,  is  not 
impelled  by  the  highest  motive  and  will  not  get  the 
best  results.  The  ambition  to  make  money  is  honor- 
able. Fundamentally,  it  is  the  motive  which  rouses 
men  to  activity  in  the  professions  as  well  as  in  busi- 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS       31 

ness.  Yet  the  lawyer  who  studies  and  plans  only  that 
he  may  earn  large  fees  will  never  be  a  great  lawyer; 
lacking  noble  aspirations,  he  will  lack  breadth  of  train- 
ing. In  fact,  any  man,  whether  in  the  professions  or 
in  business,  who  alwa}rs  thinks  of  compensation  in 
terms  of  dollars,  must  be  cheap  and  sordid  and  in- 
capable of  the  finest  achievements. 

The  business  man  who  studies  will  get  a  double  re- 
ward. First,  his  money-making  ability  will  be  in- 
creased, for  he  will  have  a  better  understanding  of 
business  conditions,  will  see  more  clearly  the  possibili- 
ties of  his  own  business,  and  will  be  better  prepared 
to  take  advantage  of  opportunity.  Second,  he  will 
be  a  bigger,  broader,  wiser  man  and  so  get  more  satis- 
faction out  of  business  and  out  of  life.  As  he  begins 
to  understand  things  that  are  now  mysterious  and 
puzzling,  and  sees  more  and  more  clearly  into  the  in- 
tricacies of  relationship  existing  among  business  phe- 
nomena, his  own  business,  which  once  was  work  and 
drudgery,  will  begin  to  possess  for  him  the  fascina- 
tion of  a  game,  and  its  charm  will  be  due,  not  only  to 
the  number  of  dollars  added  to  the  surplus  account  of 
his  balance  sheet,  but  also  to  the  consciousness  of 
power  which  its  successful  conduct  gives  him.  It  cer- 
tainly does  pay  to  study. 

23.  Culture. — In  the  foregoing  section  I  have  made 
no  mention  of  the  highest  reward  of  study,  the  prize 
which  scholars  most  highly  value  and  which  makes 
men  of  talent  devote  themselves  happily  to  science  and 
to  teaching.     I  did  not  mention  it  above  because  the 


;*s»  INTRODUCTION 

men  who  study  and  earn  this  reward  do  not  think  of 
it  as  "pay"  and  do  not  work  iii  order  that  they  may 
get  it.  They  devote  their  lives  to  scientific  study  and 
investigation  because  they  love  it.  Their  unsought 
compensation  is  culture. 

Culture  is  a  word  difficult  to  define  for  a  man  not 
possessing  it.  In  the  same  way  one  would  have  diffi- 
culty in  making  a  cad  or  a  boor  understand  the  word 
"gentleman"  if  neither  had  ever  seen  a  gentleman. 
Culture  is  a  by-product  of  reading,  of  study  and  of 
fine  associations.  The  better  the  books  a  man  has  read 
and  understood  and  enjoyed,  the  finer  the  works  of 
art  he  has  seen  and  appreciated,  the  profounder  his 
enjoyment  of  the  beauty  of  nature  and  of  the  charm 
of  music,  the  greater  his  knowledge  of  the  funda- 
mentals of  the  sciences — the  larger  his  store  of  culture. 
Culture  is  not  a  veneer  that  can  be  bought  at  a  shop 
or  at  a  university.  It  implies  the  harmonious  develop- 
ment of  the  whole  man,  a  glad,  sympathetic  knowl- 
edge of  the  fine,  noble  and  beautiful  achievements  of 
the  human  race  as  recorded  in  the  best  of  literature. 

Xo  man  can  pursue  the  Modern  Business  Course 
and  Service  faithfully  and  intelligently  without  gain- 
ing in  that  breadth  of  vision  and  knowledge  which  is 
part  of  culture.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  a  subscriber 
who  thus  far  has  taken  no  interest  in  science  or  in  any 
intellectual  pursuit,  if  there  are  any  such,  will  become 
a  new  man  intellectually.  Under  the  direction  of  the 
Institute  he  will  study  the  science  of  business  and  will 
get  some  knowledge  of  certain  related  sciences,  such 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS       33 

as  ethics,  psychology  and  sociology.  His  studies 
should  have  a  cultural  effect.  He  will  be  getting,  in 
some  measure,  the  kind  of  education  which  Milton  thus 
described  in  his  "Tractate  on  Education": 

I  shall  detain  you  no  longer  in  the  demonstration  of  what 
we  should  not  do,  but  strait  conduct  ye  to  a  hill  side,  where 
I  will  point  ye  out  the  right  path  of  a  vertuous  and  nohle 
Education  ;  laborious  indeed  at  the  first  ascent,  but  else  so 
smooth,  so  green,  so  full  of  goodly  prospect,  and  melodious 
sounds  on  every  side,  that  the  harp  of  Orpheus  was  not  more 
charming.  ...  I  call  therefore  a  compleat  and  generous 
Education  that  which  fits  a  man  to  perform  justly,  skilfully 
and  magnanimously  all  the  offices  both  private  and  publick 
of  Peace  and  War. 

And  there  should  be  awakened  in  the  subscriber  a 
desire  for  knowledge  and  a  taste  for  study  which  will 
send  him  with  enthusiasm  into  other  fields  of  science 
and  literature. 

24.  Purpose  of  education. — Xot  so  very  many  years 
ago  the  common  notion  was  that  the  aim  of  educa- 
tion was  the  advancement  of  learning,  but  it  is  now 
beginning  to  be  seen  that  mere  learning  cannot  justify 
the  social  and  financial  cost  of  our  schools  and  colleges. 
Many  a  learned  man  has  not  been  of  the  slightest  use 
in  this  world. 

Some  educators  hold  that  the  highest  function  of 
the  college  is  to  train  character  and  so  make  its  stu- 
dents real  men.  Xow  character  is  the  finest  thing  on 
earth.  It  is  a  far  more  beautiful  thing  than  culture. 
By  character  we  mean  the  will  to  endure,  the  will  to 
do  that  which  is  disagreeable  if  we  ought  to  do  it,  and 


84  INTRODUCTION 

the  will  not  to  do  that  which  is  agreeable  if  we  ought 
not  to  do  it.  This  great  thing,  character,  can  be 
earned  only  by  hard  work,  by  endurance,  by  self-de- 
nial.    It  is  not  a  product  of  lectures  or  of  sermons. 

But  the  primary  and  important  aim  of  education  is 
not  character  building,  nor  learning,  nor  culture,  but 
the  development  of  the  power  to  understand  and  of 
the  knowledge  that  understanding  must  precede  wise 
action.  The  country  is  full  of  social  quack  doctors 
with  nostrums  for  all  imaginable  social  diseases  and 
evils.  Their  active,  insistent,  cocksure  ignorance  is 
the  third  rail  against  which  society  needs  protection, 
and  it  is  to  the  trained,  the  educated  business  man, 
humbly  aware  how  little  he  knows,  but  keenly  alive 
to  the  fact  that  a  problem  must  be  understood  before 
it  can  be  solved,  that  society  must  look  for  deliverance 
from  peril. 

Speaking  of  the  fallacious  idea  that  there  is  not 
enough  work  to  go  around  and  that  laboring  men 
should  therefore  restrict  production,  Mr.  Frank  A. 
Vanderlip  said  recently  befor"e  the  American  Bank- 
ers' Association: 

However  natural  it  may  be  to  feel  impatient  with  the  man 
who  honestly  holds  such  views,  impatience  is  useless.  As 
long  as  he  holds  these  views,  he  will  act  upon  them  as  you  or 
I  act  upon  our  views.  His  opinion  is  a  fact  to  be  dealt  with. 
It  is  as  real  as  a  mountain  where  you  want  to  build  a  road- 
way. In  the  case  of  the  mountain,  we  do  not  get  impatient, 
but  we  endeavor  to  survey  it  and  find  a  way  over  or  thru  it. 
Fortunately,  erroneous  opinions,  however  stubbornly  held, 
are  more  like  an  ice-bank  than  a  mountain.  They  will  even- 
tually melt  away  and  disappear  before  the  truth — if  not  in 


SCIENTIFIC  TRAINING  FOR  BUSINESS       35 

one  generation,  in  another.  Understanding  of  economic 
laws  seems  to  me  almost  the  greatest  need  of  our  day.  No 
body  of  men  will  act  contrary  to  their  own  interests  when 
thev  know  what  their  interests  are.  The  spread  of  a  sound 
comprehension  of  economic  laws  seems  to  me,  therefore,  one 
of  the  greatest  duties  that  go  with  the  responsibilities  of 
bankers. 

25.  Business  and  life. — The  aim  of  the  Institute  is 
service.  That,  indeed,  is  the  aim  of  all  legitimate 
business.  The  founders  of  the  Institute  would  be 
disappointed  if  its  subscribers  were  content  merely  to 
increase  their  money-getting  abilities.  Business, 
money,  profits,  are  not  ends  in  themselves,  but  are  the 
means  by  which  men  live.  Man  is  on  the  earth  to  live, 
not  merely  to  make  a  living.  The  subscriber  who  de- 
votes all  the  days  and  years  of  his  life  to  business  and 
becomes  so  engrossed  in  it  or  so  eager  for  larger  gains 
that  he  has  no  time  for  the  joys  and  duties  of  life  and 
no  will  for  the  responsibilities  of  citizenship  and  par- 
enthood, may  die  worth  many  million  dollars  and  be 
rated  a  business  success,  but  as  a  man  he  will  be  a 
failure. 

A  man  who  devotes  most  of  his  time  to  a  single  kind 
of  activity  or  interest  does  not  really  live.  His  un- 
used faculties  actually  die  or  atrophy.  This  is  true 
of  the  farmer  who  toils  from  sunrise  to  sundown  until 
old  age  brings  him  to  the  grave.  It  is  equally  true 
of  the  musician  or  artist  who  knows  but  one  source  of 
pleasure,  and  it  is  certainly  true  of  the  man  who  gives 
all  his  life  and  energy  to  business  in  order  that  he 
may  amass  a  fortune.     A  violinist  cannot  get  music 


86  INTRODUCTION 

out  of  his  instrument  if  he  keeps  his  bow  forever  on 
one  string.  Man  is  an  instrument  of  myriad  strings. 
1 1  he  Mould  really  live  he  must  play  on  them  all. 

Business  has  given  to  modern  civilization  conveni- 
ences and  luxuries  unknown  to  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.  It  has  made  living  easier  and  more  com- 
fortable. But  business  men  as  a  class  have  not  in  the 
past  always  so  ordered  their  own  lives  as  to  win  the 
unqualified  respect  and  confidence  of  other  classes  of 
society.  The  word  "commercial"  in  popular  opinion 
is  now  losing  its  taint,  but  it  will  not  have  an  unques- 
tioned place  in  the  ethical  "blue  book"  until  business 
men  have  proved  by  their  lives,  as  well  as  by  their 
donations,  their  unselfish  interest  in  social  welfare,  in 
religion,  in  education,  in  the  improvement  of  labor 
conditions,  in  the  abolition  of  poverty,  and  in  the  sta- 
bility of  law  and  government  with  equal  rights  and  im- 
partial justice  for  all. 

The  army  of  Alexander  Hamilton  Institute  sub- 
scribers is  growing  rapidly;  they  are  in  almost  every 
town  and  city  in  the  United  States  and  in  Canada, 
and  in  many  foreign  countries,  including  Japan, 
China  and  South  America.  The  mission  of  the  Insti- 
tute is  world-wide.  It  will  have  rendered  its  highest 
service  if  these  men  prove  by  their  lives  that  they  have 
not  only  learned  from  the  Alexander  Hamilton  Insti- 
tute the  scientific  principles  of  business,  but  have  also 
got  from  it  aspirations  toward  all-around  manhood 
and  citizenship. 


BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

CHAPTER  I 

NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS 

1.  Definition  of  business. — In  everyday  speech  the 
word  "business"  does  not  possess  a  clear-cut  mean- 
ing. It  is  applied  rather  vaguely  to  trading  and 
manufacturing  occupations  as  distinguished  from  the 
arts  and  professions. 

It  is  the  aim  of  the  Modern  Business  Texts  to  ex- 
plain the  laws  or  principles  which  determine  and  con- 
trol the  events  of  the  business  world.  For  the  pur- 
pose of  our  study  business  may  be  defined  as  follows: 

Any  occupation  in  which  men,  at  the  risk  of  loss, 
seek  to  make  money  by  producing  commodities  for 
sale,  or  by  buying  and  selling  commodities,  or  by 
hiring  the  services  of  others  for  utilization  at  a  profit. 

Or  more  briefly: 

Business  is  any  gainful  occupation  of  which  profit 
is  the  goal  and  in  which  there  is  risk  of  loss. 

This  definition,  it  will  be  noted,  excludes  many  so- 
called  gainful  occupations.  The  farmer,  for  example, 
would  be  said  to  be  in  business  only  in  so  far  as  he 
hires  labor  and  markets  his  products.  As  he  enlarges 
his  operations  and  hires  more  men  Jto  work  for  him, 

37 

7  Q  R : 


38  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

he  becomes  more  and  more  a  business  man  because  he 
is  more  and  more  concerned  in  such  problems  of  busi- 
ness as  are  involved  in  accounting,  management,  sales- 
manship and  credits.  But  in  the  beginning  his  busi- 
ness interests  are  negligible. 

Evidently  a  country  storekeeper  is  in  business,  for 
he  buys  goods  in  the  hope  of  selling  them  at  a  profit 
and  takes  the  risk  of  not  being  able  to  do  so.  A  young 
clerk  in  his  employ  on  a  salary  takes  no  business  risk 
and  is  not  thinking  about  profits ;  hence,  strictly  speak- 
ing, he  is  not  a  business  man.  But  he  is  part  of  a 
business  machine  and  is  learning  how  to  do  business, 
and  so  is  commonly  thought  of  as  being  in  business. 

The  owner  of  a  factory  who  buys  raw  materials  and 
hires  labor  is  taking  risks  and  is  in  business.  Some 
of  his  employes  are  artisans  or  workers  with  tools  and 
machines;  they  are  learning  nothing  about  business 
and  are  not  thought  of  as  being  in  business.  Other 
employes  may  be  connected  with  the  purchase  or  sales 
department,  and  may  have  to  assume  distinctly  busi- 
ness responsibilities  so  we  think  of  them  as  being  in 
business.  The  bookkeeper  who  keeps  the  records  of 
the  purchases  and  sales,  the  output,  the  costs,  etc., 
stands  on  the  border  line  between  business  and  man- 
ual labor.  As  mere  bookkeeper  he  is  little  more  than 
a  machine,  but  as  a  potential  accountant,  able  to  im- 
prove his  employer's  system  of  bookkeeping  and  to 
warn  him  against  the  danger  of  increasing  costs,  he 
steps  into  the  ranks  of  business  men. 

In  general,  the,  great  mass  of  laborers  in  manufac- 


NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS  39 

turing  establishments  and  on  our  railroads,  whose 
work  is  mainly  with  their  hands,  are  not  thought  of  as 
business  men  altho  they  are  connected  with  business 
enterprises.  They  have  no  part  in  the  solution  of 
problems  involving  risk  and  profit  and  are  not  being 
trained  for  such  effort.  They  have  "jobs"  in  business 
concerns,  but  they  assume  no  business  responsibilities. 
On  the  other  hand,  every  business  enterprise  employs 
men  upon  whom  the  employer  unloads  some  of  his  re- 
sponsibilities. Such  men,  whether  they  be  bookkeep- 
ers, cashiers,  salesmen  or  department  managers,  are 
in  direct  contact  with  business  problems  and  are  re- 
garded as  business  men  even  tho  their  own  money  is 
not  at  risk. 

2.  Profit  and  risk  essential  elements. — It  is  not  im- 
portant to  decide  whether  this  or  that  man  is  in  busi- 
ness or  not,  but  it  is  important  to  understand  that  the 
word  business  necessarily  implies  a  balance  sheet  upon 
which  the  two  most  important  words  are  profit  and 
loss.  If  profit  is  not  the  goal,  then  the  enterprise  is 
not  a  business  one. 

By  the  profit  of  a  business  enterprise  is  meant  the 
surplus  left  over  after  all  the  costs  or  expenses  have 
been  paid.  A  small  storekeeper  doing  a  cash  business 
must  sell  his  goods  at  such  prices  and  in  such  volume 
as  will  enable  him  to  pay  the  wages  of  his  employes, 
a  fair  wage  to  himself,  rent  to  his  landlord,  interest 
on  capital  invested,  and  all  other  expenses.  If,  at  the 
end  of  a  year,  his  inventory  shows  that  his  stock  of 
goods  has  not  shrunk  in  value,  and  his  outstanding 


40  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

debts  are  no  greater,  the  increase  or  decrease  of  his 
bank  balance  during  the  year  will  disclose  his  profit  or 
loss.1 

Profits  are  the  goal  of  business.  If  the  socialists 
had  their  way  and  legislated  capital  and  profits  out 
of  existence,  what  we  now  know  as  modern  business 
Mould  completely  disappear.  In  Chapter  II  we  shall 
make  a  closer  study  of  profits  and  endeavor  to  show 
how  profit  is  earned  and  the  obstacles  that  must  be 
overcome.  Later  on  it  will  be  shown  that  the  strug- 
gle for  profit  which  we  call  business  has  been  a  tre- 
mendous force  in  the  development  of  human  capacity 
and  for  the  advancement  of  civilization. 

3.  Importance  of  money  and  price. — At  the  pres- 
ent time  almost  all  goods  are  made  to  be  sold.  Spe- 
cialization and  the  subdivision  of  labor  have  been  car- 
ried so  far  that  few  men  produce  the  things  which 
they  themselves  consume.  Old  people  recall  the  days 
when  farmers  had  little  need  for  cash,  for  they  bought 
little  at  the  stores.  Their  own  farms  produced  most 
of  their  food  and  the  material  for  some  of  their  cloth- 
ing. Today  the  average  farmer  in  the  United  States 
devotes  his  energies  to  the  raising  of  a  few  crops.  He 
sells  these  for  money  and  buys  his  food  and  clothes 
very  much  as  does  the  city  dweller. 

So  it  happens  that  money  and  prices  have  become 
very  important  matters.  What  men  really  want  are 
goods  or  commodities,  things  which  possess  what  we 

i  Profits   are  more  technically   discussed   from   the   accounting  stand- 
point in  other  volumes  of  the  Modern  Business  Texts. 


NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS  41 

call  value.  To  get  these  is  the  ultimate  object  of 
work,  but  under  modern  conditions  the  immediate  re- 
ward of  work  is  money,  for  with  money  the  things 
wanted  can  be  purchased.  By  the  price  of  a  thing  is 
meant  the  amount  of  money  it  sells  for.  Evidently 
the  subject  of  money  and  its  purchasing  power  is  of 
great  importance  to  all  people. 

Since  business  men  must  figure  their  profits  in 
money  and  cannot  make  a  profit  unless  they  sell  at  a 
price  higher  than  they  bought,  it  is  evident  that  the 
forces  which  control  the  purchasing  power  of  money 
must  not  be  ignored  by  the  wide-awake  business  man. 
That  is  the  reason  why  the  subjects  of  money  and 
prices  and  credit  are  fully  treated  in  the  Modern  Busi- 
ness Texts. 

4.  Business  must  satisfy  human  wants. — Altho  the 
business  man  is  seeking  to  make  a  profit  for  himself, 
he  must  nevertheless  think  more  of  others  than  of 
himself.  He  can  earn  his  profit  only  thru  his  ability 
to  please  others.  If  he  is  a  trader  he  must  buy  and 
sell  things  that  people  want.  He  is  not  a  dictator 
and  cannot  make  people  buy  his  goods  merely  because 
he  himself  thinks  they  are  better  than  the  goods  peo- 
ple call  for.  So  the  business  man  must  study  human 
wants  and  caprices.  He  may  not  approve  of  their 
tastes  or  of  their  judgment,  but  if  he  wishes  to  make 
a  profit,  he  must  be  ruled  by  them.  He  may  be  a 
manufacturer  of  shoes  and  know  very  well  that  high 
heels  make  walking  painful,  but  he  will  not  let  what 
he  knows  about  physiology  and  anatomy  shape  the 


42  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

model  of  any  woman's  shoe — unless  possibly  his  wife's. 

P.  D.  Armour  once  said  that  he  chose  to  deal  in  pork 
because  it  was  an  article  of  food  that  nearly  every- 
body wanted  in  some  form  or  other.  A  business  deal- 
ing in  a  commodity  that  is  in  universal  demand,  such  as 
wheat,  flour,  or  cotton  cloth,  is  capable  of  tremendous 
development.  The  profit  on  each  ham  or  each  barrel 
of  flour  or  each  gallon  of  oil  may  be  small,  yet  the 
gross  profits  may  run  into  the  millions  because  of  the 
large  sales. 

5.  New  wants  constantly  appearing. — As  every- 
body knows,  the  last  twenty-five  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  were  characterized  by  a  remarkable 
development  of  machine  production.  Invention  after 
invention  lowered  costs  of  production  and  made  pos- 
sible a  great  increase  in  the  output  of  commodities. 
One  man  with  the  aid  of  modern  machinery  is  able  to 
produce  one  hundredfold  more  than  his  grandfather 
could  have  produced  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago. 

While  this  industrial  progress  was  taking  place, 
especially  between  1880  and  1896,  the  general  level  of 
prices  was  falling,  and  as  goods  became  cheaper  one 
often  heard  the  prediction  that  the  time  was  fast  ap- 
proaching when  all  the  goods  that  man  needed  could 
be  produced  by  two  or  three  hours  of  labor  a  day. 
The  increasing  efficiency  of  the  machine  seemed  des- 
tined to  reduce  the  demand  for  hired  labor  to  a  mini- 
mum, and  in  consequence  dire  prophecies,  especially 
among  persons  of  socialistic  or  radical  tendencies,  were 
heard  with  regard  to  the  future  of  the  laboring  classes. 


NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS  43 

The  radicals  held  that  the  machine,  called  capital  by 
the  economists,  was  bound  to  absorb  an  increasing  pro- 
portion of  the  world's  wealth  and  that  less  and  less 
would  be  left  for  the  poor  working  man. 

Happily  this  gloomy  prophecy  has  not  come  true. 
It  was  based  upon  a  fallacy,  namely,  the  assumption 
that  man  has  a  definite  number  of  wants  and  that 
when  these  are  satisfied  he  is  content.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  man  is  a  bundle  of  an  infinite  number  of  po- 
tential wants.  This  is  one  of  the  important  charac- 
teristics which  distinguish  man  from  all  other  ani- 
mals. A  certain  amount  of  food  and  drink,  a  little 
play  and  a  chance  to  run  and  climb  a  tree,  and  now 
and  then  to  "lay"  for  a  mouse  or  a  chipmunk,  will 
bring  complete  content  to  the  most  high-bred  tabby  in 
any  cat  show.  The  wants  of  all  the  lower  animals  are 
fixed  in  number,  and  when  these  are  gratified  the  ani- 
mal is  ready  for  rest  and  sleep. 

But  man  is  insatiable.  As  his  power  over  nature 
grows  or  as  his  wealth  increases,  his  wants  multiply.1 
When  poor  and  half-nourished  his  idea  of  heaven  is  a 
place  where  there  is  an  abundance  of  roast  beef  and 
vegetables.  A  poor  and  ignorant  Yankee  farmer  was 
once  asked  what  he  was  working  for.  "Salt  pork 
and  sundown,"  was  his  illuminating  reply.  He 
wanted  the  day  to  end  that  he  might  get  something  to 
eat  and  go  to  bed.  If  that  farmer  should  inherit  a 
fortune  and  go  to  New  York  City  to  live,  it  needs  no 

1  Man  is  the  whole  encyclopedia  of  facts,  the  creation  of  a  thousand 
forests   in  an  aoorn;   Egypt,  Greece,  Rome,  Gaul,   Britain,  America  lie 
folded  already  in  the  first  man. — Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 
1—5 


44  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

prophet  to  foretell  what  would  happen  to  his  taste  for 
salt  pork  or  that  sundown  might  become  a  signal  for 
something  else  than  going  to  bed. 

»'».  The  overproduction  bogey. — Fortunately  for  the 
business  man  as  well  as  for  the  man  who  wishes  to  sell 
his  services,  there  is  not  the  slightest  possibility  that 
the  world  will  ever  be  overstocked  with  the  things  that 
men  desire.1  General  overproduction  is  impossible. 
The  word  overproduction  has  no  significance  in  busi- 
ness except  when  it  is  applied  to  a  single  commodity. 
The  automobile,  for  example,  is  making  imminent  the 
overproduction  of  horses,  wagons  and  harnesses.  The 
increasing  use  of  gas  and  electricity  might  easily  lead 
to  a  glut  in  the  lamp  market.  Some  people  prefer 
rice  to  potatoes,  both  having  substantially  the  same 
value  as  food ;  if  this  taste  for  rice  should  spread  rap- 
idly thruout  the  country,  then  there  might  be  for  a 
time  overproduction  of  potatoes. 

Since  the  business  man  is  striving  to  make  a  profit, 
he  must  constantly  be  on  his  guard,  whether  he  be 
manufacturer  or  trader,  against  overproduction  or 
overstocking  in  special  lines,  and  seek  to  anticipate 
the  changes  of  demand  to  wThich  the  market  is  sus- 
ceptible. He  need  have  no  fear  that  any  increase 
in  the  production  of  goods  will  so  satiate  the  human 

i  Schopenhauer,  the  German  philosopher,  rests  his  theory  of  pessimism 
on  the  capacity  of  human  wants  to  multiply.  He  held  that  misery  was 
the  ultimate  and  inevitable  lot  of  the  human  race.  A  man  is  unhappy 
in  the  presence  of  an  ungratified  want.  Happiness  is  possible  only  when 
the  want  is  gratified,  but  the  moment  the  want  is  gratified  two  other 
clamorous  wants  take  its  place,  so  that  the  poor  man  is  really  more 
miserable  than  when  he  thought  he  was  about  to  be  happy. 


NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS  45 

race  that  there  will  be  no  desire  for  his  services.  As 
production  increases,  wealth  will  increase,  and  the 
demand  for  goods  will  be  not  only  greater  but  more 
varied. 

7.  Importance  of  salesmanship  and  advertising. — 
The  reader  has  gathered  from  the  two  preceding  sec- 
tions not  only  how  necessary  it  is  for  the  business  man 
to  study  the  wants  of  his  customers,  but  also  how  im- 
portant it  is  that  he  be  able  to  give  them  just  what 
they  want.  To  sell  a  man  anything  you  must  first 
know  what  he  wants  and  then  be  able  to  convince  him 
that  you  can  supply  it  at  a  reasonable  price.  In  the 
old  days  of  so-called  community  production  and 
marketing,  when  there  were  no  railways  nor  steam- 
ships, both  production  and  trading  were  usually  on  a 
small  scale  and  the  business  man  knew  most  of  his 
customers  personally.  Now,  however,  production 
and  marketing  are  world  affairs.  A  manufacturer  in 
a  Massachusetts  village  may  sell  in  all  the  continents 
of  the  globe.  Thus  it  happens  that  marketing  has 
become  one  of  the  most  important  of  business  prob- 
lems. No  man  can  succeed  in  business  if  he  ignores 
its  difficulties  and  its  perils. 

Advertising  and  salesmanship,  which  are  vital  parts 
of  the  marketing  process,  have  special  importance  in 
any  business  which  deals  in  something  new.  The 
salesman  and  the  advertisement  must  rouse  in 
people  a  desire  for  that  new  thing.  The  manufac- 
turer cannot  afford  to  wait  for  the  slow  develop- 
ment of  his  industry  that  will  ensue  if  he  lets  the  ad- 


46  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

vantages  of  his  product  be  discovered  gradually  as  a 

result  of  its  use  among  a  small  number  of  customers. 
Hence  he  makes  it  known  in  every  possible  way,  and 
for  that  purpose  spends  money  in  a  fashion  which  his 
grandfather  fifty  years  ago  would  have  regarded  as 
astounding  extravagance.  Salesmanship  and  adver- 
tising are  in  great  part  responsible  for  the  spectacular 
development  of  the  automobile  industry. 

8.  Three  great  classes  of  business. — For  our  pres- 
ent purpose  it  seems  proper  to  divide  buolness  into  the 
following  three  classes : 

First — The  production  and  sale  of  goods.  This 
kind  of  business  is  commonly  known  as  industry,  and 
embraces  all  kinds  of  manufacturing  and  the  so-called 
extractive  industries,  mining,  agriculture  and  lumber- 
ing. While  some  farmers  would  hardly  be  classed 
as  business  men  because  of  the  small  scale  upon 
which  they  produce,  agriculture  as  a  whole  is  properly 
regarded  as  an  industry. 

Second — The  purchase  and  sale  of  commodities. 
By  commodity  is  meant  anything  which  has  value  and 
is  therefore  salable.  This  kind  of  business  embraces 
those  which  are  usually  grouped  under  trade  and  mer- 
chandising. 

Third — The  purchase  and  sale  of  services,  whether 
the  services  of  human  beings  or  the  uses  of  material 
things.  This  class  embraces  many  different  kinds  of 
human  activity.  The  banker  may  be  regarded  as  a 
dealer  in  that  valuable  but  intangible  thing  called 
credit,  or  we  may  without  splitting  hairs  say  that  the 


NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS  47 

charge  he  makes  when  he  discounts  a  promissory  note 
is  for  the  service  the  bank  renders.  A  theatrical  man- 
ager who  hires  the  services  of  players  is  a  business  man, 
but  the  players  are  not.  The  railroad,  steamship, 
telegraph  and  telephone  companies  sell  services.  The 
city  landlord  sells  to  his  tenant  the  right  to  use  an 
apartment ;  strictly  speaking,  he  is  selling  a  service. 

This  use  of  the  word  service  may  seem  technical  to 
the  reader,  but  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand.  A 
man  renders  you  a  service  whenever  he  aids  you  in 
getting  what  you  want.  Any  man  who  makes  a  "busi- 
ness" of  rendering  services  to  others  and  is  looking  for 
a  profit  and  taking  a  risk,  is  in  business. 

9.  The  professions. — There  are  many  gainful  occu- 
pations that  are  not  classed  as  business  for  the  reason 
that  profit  making  is  not  their  primary  aim.  The 
most  important  of  these  are  the  professions  and  the 
arts.  The  three  best  known  professions  are  law, 
medicine  and  theology,  often  referred  to  as  the  learned 
professions.  In  recent  years,  other  callings  have  ac- 
quired equal  claim  to  rank  as  professions,  for  ex- 
ample, engineering  and  architecture. 

A  professional  man  finds  his  reward  not  merely  in 
the  money  he  earns,  which  comes  to  him  usually  in 
fees  and  retainers,  but  in  his  love  of  the  work,  in  its 
dignity  and  importance,  in  his  personal  independence, 
in  the  distinction  he  achieves  because  of  his  skill  and 
intelligence,  and  in  the  respect  he  commands  from  his 
colleagues  of  the  same  profession. 

The  prerequisite  to  success  in  a  profession  is  in- 


IS  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

tellectual  power.  If  success  in  any  calling  depends 
more  upon  manual  skill  than  upon  brains,  it  is  a 
trade,  not  a  profession.  For  example,  a  dentist  who 
is  merely  able  to  extract  teeth  and  to  fill  decayed  cavi- 
ties is  little  more  than  a  mechanic.  To  be  entitled  to 
professional  rank  he  must  know  as  much  as  a  physi- 
eian  about  the  various  diseases  that  attack  the  teeth 
and  the  gums,  and  must  be  able  to  treat  them  in  a 
scientific  manner.  To  impart  this  knowledge  as  well 
as  to  give  opportunity  to  attain  mechanical  skill,  is 
the  aim  of  all  our  best  dental  schools.  Hence  den- 
tistry may  claim  to  rank  among  the  professions. 

The  professions  differ  from  business  occupations  in 
that  they  have  definite  codes  of  ethics  which  prescribe 
and  limit  the  conduct  of  practitioners  in  the  various 
contingencies  likely  to  arise.  As  is  well  known,  it  is 
unethical  for  a  professional  man  to  advertise,  for  the 
only  thing  he  can  advertise  is  his  own  ability.  It  is 
all  right  for  the  merchant  to  extol  the  virtues  and 
qualities  of  his  goods,  or  for  a  druggist  to  claim  that 
he  handles  only  pure  drugs,  but  evidently  it  would 
be  bad  taste  for  a  doctor  to  boast  of  his  wonderful 
cures  or  for  a  lawyer  to  brag  about  his  success  in  the 
courts.  So  the  young  man  entering  a  profession  evi- 
dently has  a  hard  time  of  it  in  the  beginning.  He 
may  send  out  cards  announcing  that  he  has  opened  an 
office,  he  can  join  clubs  and  societies  and  make  all 
the  friends  possible,  but  he  must  beware  of  any  con- 
duct that  seems  to  have  an  advertising  aim.  Other- 
wise, if  he  is  a  lawyer,  he  may  be  spoken  of  contemptu- 


NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS  49 

ously  as  an  "ambulance  chaser,"  or  if  he  be  a  young 
physician,  he  will  be  looked  upon  with  suspicion,  will 
possibly  be  called  a  "quack,"  and  will  be  given  no 
"boost"  by  the  older  members  of  his  profession. 

Members  of  some  of  the  professions,  however,  are 
wise  if  they  make  a  study  of  business  problems. 
Many  of  our  most  successful  lawyers,  for  example, 
are  constantly  occupied  with  cases  which  cannot  be 
thoroly  understood  by  one  who  is  ignorant  of  business 
principles  and  customs.  The  engineer  or  the  architect 
who  knows  nothing  of  corporation  finance  or  business 
law  or  of  cost  finding  will  never  rise  to  the  highest 
rank  in  his  profession. 

10.  Artists. — In  all  these  respects  artists  are  very 
much  like  the  professional  men.  A  sculptor,  a  painter 
or  a  poet  camiot  brag  about  his  work.  The  prereq- 
uisite of  success  in  art  is  taste,  and  it  would  certainly 
be  evidence  of  very  bad  taste  for  an  artist  to  proclaim 
his  superiority  to  the  world. 

The  artist,  however,  is  not  altogether  debarred  from 
the  advantages  of  publicity.  Publishers  proclaim  the 
worth  of  the  poet,  and  dealers  advertise  an  exhibit  of 
the  creations  of  the  sculptor  and  the  painter,  while 
theatrical  managers  are  frequently  most  gorgeous  and 
lurid  in  their  claims  for  the  brilliancy  of  the  stars  be- 
hind their  footlights.  Publishers,  art  dealers  and 
theatrical  managers  are  in  business.  It  is  proper  for 
them  to  advertise.  But  the  artists  themselves,  if  they 
are  to  be  thought  real  artists,  must  not  seem  to  be 
courting  publicity.     Possibly  this  view  may  come  as 


50  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

a  shock  to  some  so-called  artists,  yet  it  is  perfectly 
true.  But  then  artists  will  have  no  occasion  to  read 
this  book. 

11,  Is  business  a  profession? — If  we  analyze  the  so- 
called  learned  professions,  we  find  them  distinguished 
by  these  two  characteristics:  first,  in  their  practice 
brains  are  far  more  important  than  technique  or  man- 
ual skill;  second,  education  in  certain  sciences  is  es- 
sential to  success.  No  calling  deserves  to  be  called 
a  profession  if  its  tasks  and  problems  are  so  simple 
as  to  be  within  the  grasp  of  any  man  of  ordinary  abil- 
ity and  education.  The  problems  of  a  profession  can 
be  correctly  solved  only  by  a  man  who  has  had  thoro 
training  in  science.  The  physician,  for  example, 
apart  from  his  knowledge  of  materia  medica,  must  be 
well  grounded  in  anatomy,  physiology,  chemistry  and 
bacteriology.  Psychology  should  be  added  to  this 
list,  altho  our  medical  schools  do  not  appear  to  be 
alive  to  the  importance  of  this  science.  The  well 
trained  lawyer  should  be  disciplined  in  the  sciences  of 
pure  logic  and  of  jurisprudence,  in  ethics,  in  the  evo- 
lution of  law  and  in  the  theories  that  explain  and 
justify  legal  doctrines.  When  the  physician  or  law- 
yer is  not  thus  trained,  the  young  lawyer  merely  know- 
ing the  statutes  and  procedure  of  his  jurisdiction,  and 
the  young  physician  knowing  only  drugs  and  symp- 
toms, both  are  empiricists  and  do  not  deserve  to  be 
called  professional  men.  They  resemble  the  car- 
penter who  works  by  rule-of -thumb. 

Certain  business  callings  in  recent  years  have  risen 


NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS  51 

into  the  professional  ranks.  Before  the  year  1900 
few  public  accountants  would  have  claimed  that  their 
occupation  was  professional  in  character.  The  ac- 
countant was  then  often  referred  to  as  a  "bookkeeper 
out  of  a  job."  But  the  really  expert  accountants  of 
the  last  century  knew  very  well  that  their  difficult 
tasks  could  not  be  performed  by  the  ordinary  book- 
keeper. They  realized  that  the  accountant  could  not 
do  his  best  work  unless  he  knew  a  great  deal  about  the 
business  man's  problems.  It  has  been  largely  because 
of  the  accountants'  belief  in  the  high  character  of  their 
work  that  university  schools  of  commerce  have  re- 
cently been  established  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  in 
which  men  are  trained  in  all  the  sciences  underlying 
business  as  well  as  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  ac- 
counting. For  the  same  reason  many  states  have 
passed  laws  providing  that  no  man  shall  style  him- 
self a  "certified  public  accountant"  until  he  has  suc- 
cessfully passed  examinations  conducted  by  the  state 
authorities.  In  view  of  these  conditions  the  account- 
ant may  fairly  claim  that  his  calling  is  one  of  profes- 
sional rank.     . 

Other  business  occupations,  notably  advertising  and 
the  work  of  the  credit  man,  are  rapidly  moving  in  the 
same  upward  direction.  Entrance  into  these  callings 
is  not  yet  guarded  by  statute,  but  many  of  the  lead- 
ers already  realize  the  need  for  preparatory  training, 
and  some  of  our  university  schools  of  commerce  are 
doing  their  best  to  supply  it. 

The  American  banker  is  also  beginning  to  discover 


BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

his  need  for  men  who  have  had  scientific  training,  for 
the  problems  of  banking  are  becoming  more  and  more 
intricate  and  difficult.  The  time  seems  to  be  ap- 
proaching when  bank  presidents  and  managers  can- 
not be  picked  haphazard  from  lists  of  men  who  have 
had  successful  experience  in  trade  or  manufacturing. 
Not  many  years  ago  a  prosperous  farmer  was  often 
elected  to  a  bank  presidency.  But  a  banker  is  becom- 
ing more  and  more  a  specialist,  and  competition  will 
surely  compel  him  to  obtain  mastery  of  the  sciences 
underlying  the  phenomena  of  economics,  credit,  money 
and  international,  as  well  as  national,  finance.  And 
then  we  may  fairly  claim  to  have  professional  bankers. 

Some  of  our  banks  are  showing  preference  for  uni- 
versity graduates  and  are  conducting  courses  of  in- 
struction for  their  employes  which  are  scientific  as 
well  as  practical,  but  these  banks  are  exceptions. 
Not  until  it  is  generally  realized  that  office  experience 
cannot  take  the  place  of  scientific  training  can  bank- 
ing justly  be  called  a  profession. 

The  business  of  transportation  is  one  of  increasing 
importance  and  difficulty.  Many  of  our  railroad 
managers  have  worked  up  from  the  bottom  merely 
by  the  knowledge  they  have  gained  in  the  service.  In 
the  future  this  working  up  will  doubtless  be  more 
difficult  unless  the  ambitious  employe  does  a  lot  of 
hard  studying  and  thinking  in  his  leisure  hours.  The 
successful  management  of  a  great  railroad,  while  de- 
manding great  executive  ability,  also  calls  for  a  pro- 
found knowledge  of  economic  and  industrial  condi- 


NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS  53 

tions.  Some  day  it  should  rank  among  the  profes- 
sions. 

12.  What  constitutes  success  in  business? — Since 
profit  is  admittedly  the  aim  of  business,  it  would  log- 
ically follow  that  a  business  man's  success  can  be  meas- 
ured only  by  the  amount  of  money  he  makes.  As  a 
general  statement  this  is  perfectly  true,  yet  erroneous 
inferences  and  applications  are  quite  possible. 

The  manager  of  a  Xew  York  City  bank  may  raise 
the  net  earnings  of  his  bank  by  one  million  dollars  a 
year  and  yet  not  really  be  so  successful  as  a  small 
country  banker  who  increases  his  bank's  revenue  by 
only  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year.  In  the  same  way 
the  business  of  a  city  merchant  may  annually  expand 
by  a  million  dollars  and  yet  he  may  be  properly  re- 
garded as  less  successful  than  a  small  country  mer- 
chant the  volume  of  whose  business  is  increasing  at  the 
rate  of  only  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year.  The  city 
banker  and  merchant  have  practically  unlimited  op- 
portunities of  expansion,  while  the  country  banker 
and  merchant  are  hemmed  in  by  a  narrow  environ- 
ment. Each  of  the  latter  may  have  done  all  that 
could  possibly  be  done  to  increase  his  business,  keep 
down  costs  and  increase  net  revenues. 

Suppose  that  two  brothers  go  into  business,  one  go- 
ing to  the  city,  the  other  preferring  to  remain  in  the 
home  town.  The  one  in  the  city  has  a  fortune  of  a 
million  dollars  at  the  end  of  twenty  years,  while  the 
country  brother  has  accumulated  only  fifty  thousand 
dollars.     It  would  be  unfair  to  conclude  that  one  was 


54  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

twenty  times  more  successful  than  the  other.  We 
must  not  forget  that  while  money  profit  is  the  aim  of 
business,  yet  men  are  influenced  by  many  other  mo- 
tives when  they  choose  a  business  or  its  location. 
Money  is  the  tangible  reward  of  successful  business, 
but  money  is  not  everything  that  is  worth  while  in 
life.  Doubtless  thousands  of  merchants  potentially 
as  capable  as  the  brilliant  Marshall  Field  or  A.  T. 
Stewart,  are  conducting  successful  businesses  in  the 
small  towns  and  cities  of  the  United  States.  To  many 
of  these  the  larger  pecuniary  rewards  of  successful 
enterprise  in  great  cities  possess  no  charm  or  temp- 
tation. 

To  judge  wisely  therefore  of  a  man's  success  in 
business,  we  must  know :  First,  has  he  accomplished 
what  he  himself  set  out  to  do?  Second,  has  the  vol- 
ume of  his  business  been  as  large  as  was  warranted  by 
its  location?  And,  third,  has  its  management  been  so 
sound  that  profits  have  been  as  large  as  could  reason- 
ably be  expected? 

13.  Dignity  and  importance  of  business. — To  peo- 
ple who  are  not  well  read  in  history  and  fiction  it 
might  seem  strange  that  an  author  should  think  it 
necessary  to  prove  that  business  is  an  important  and 
worthy  occupation.  To  them  it  will  seem  perfectly 
obvious  that  business  is  both  important  and  most 
worthy,  yet  only  a  generation  ago  if  a  boy  chose 
to  be  a  lawyer  or  a  doctor  or  a  preacher  his  parents 
took  pride  in  the  fact,  and  viewed  with  more  or  less  un- 
conscious pity  those  friends  whose  sons  had  gone  into 


NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS  55 

business.  In  Europe  fifty  years  ago  business  was 
thought  something  altogether  too  vulgar  to  engage 
the  attention  of  the  nobility,  and  two  thousand  years 
ago,  when  business  was  comparatively  simple,  espe- 
cially among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  business  mat- 
ters were  attended  to  either  by  slaves  or  by  a  class  of 
citizens  much  despised.  To  devote  one's  life  merely 
to  the  making  of  money  was  deemed  ignoble  and  un- 
worthy. How  much  finer  to  be  an  orator,  a  warrior, 
a  poet,  a  painter  or  a  sculptor! 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  make  comparisons 
and  try  to  determine  whether  one  calling  is  finer  or 
nobler  than  another.  Men  are  born  into  the  world 
with  different  capacities,  and  it  should  be  the  duty 
and  ambition  of  each  to  do  that  work  which  he  can  do 
best,  and  to  put  all  his  soul  into  it,  whether  he  write 
poetry,  paint  pictures,  play  the  violin,  or  buy  and  sell 
groceries.  Then  each  will  deserve  respect  and  honor. 
This  truth  is  now  clearly  recognized  in  Great  Britain, 
many  of  whose  great  business  men  have  been  knighted, 
while  in  the  United  States  our  leading  universities  do 
honor  to  themselves  by  conferring  honorary  degrees 
upon  men  of  distinguished  service  in  trade  or  industry. 

When  we  consider  the  fact  that  the  rendering  of 
services  to  humanity  is  an  essential  element  of  busi- 
ness and  that  no  business  man  can  long  be  successful 
if  he  fail  to  render  service,  we  must  admit  that  a  great 
business  man  deserves  honor  and  respect  just  as  does 
a  great  lawyer  or  physician.  The  adjective  "com- 
mercial" cannot  be  justly  used  to  imply  reproach  or 


56  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

contempt.  To  be  sure,  business  may  be  done  in  dis- 
honorable fashion.  There  may  be  lying,  cheating, 
misrepresentation.  But  these  evils  are  also  found  in 
the  professions.  In  the  long  run,  both  in  the  profes- 
sions and  in  business,  they  work  against  great  success. 
Business  as  a  calling  cannot  be  impaled  because  some 
grocers  use  loaded  scales  or  because  now  and  then  a 
banker  embezzles  the  funds  of  his  trusting  depositors. 

Criticism  of  business  is  usually  directed  most  vio- 
lently against  the  trading  classes.  It  is  assumed  that 
the  merchant  is  a  parasite  producing  nothing  and  liv- 
ing off  the  necessities  of  the  community.  That  this 
assumption  is  a  fallacy  is  clearly  shown  in  the  Modern 
Business  Text  on  "Economics  of  Business." 

Modern  methods  of  distributing  commodities  are 
the  product  of  competitive  forces  and  are  doubtless 
imperfect  in  many  respects,  yet  the  merchant  who  is 
doing  his  best  to  satisfy  the  wants  of  his  customers  and 
is  doing  it  honestly,  is  performing  a  real  service  for  so- 
ciety and,  as  a  rule,  is  not  overpaid  for  it. 

Business  has  made  our  civilization  possible.  If  we 
should  return  to  methods  of  trading  in  vogue  a  thou- 
sand or  more  years  ago,  even  tho  the  industrial  world 
retained  all  of  its  machinery  and  processes,  our  na- 
tional wealth  would  disappear  in  a  few  years.  The 
farmers'  great  markets  would  vanish  and  production 
would  come  to  a  standstill.  The  debt  society  owes  to 
business  is  so  obvious  and  so  great  that  there  should 
be  no  excuse  for  an  author  to  devote  a  page  to  a  dis- 
cussion of  this  sort.     But  there  is  an  excuse.     It  is 


NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS  57 

the  ignorant  and  often  vicious  hostility  to  business 
frequently  manifested,  and  the  untrue  assumption 
that  our  wealth  is  wholly  the  creation  of  farmers  and 
factory  hand-workers. 

14.  Business  as  a  job. — Many  emploj^es  of  business 
concerns  think  and  speak  of  their  positions  as  "jobs." 
To  them  the  job  means  more  or  less  disagreeable  work 
for  eight  or  ten  hours  a  day.  Their  compensation 
may  be  on  a  weekly  basis,  in  which  case  it  is  called 
wages,  or  it  may  have  an  annual  rating  and  be  called 
a  salary. 

The  typical  man  with  a  "job"  is  very  much  given  to 
thinking  that  he  is  overworked  and  underpaid;  he  is 
glad  when  the  day  is  over,  for  the  job  means  hard 
work  and  no  pleasure. 

He  also  has  a  habit  of  thinking  that  mere  length  of 
service  entitles  him  to  increased  pay  or  to  promotion 
to  a  better  job. 

He  often  is  heard  to  complain  about  the  big  salaries 
that  are  paid  to  men  who  do  not  do  half  the  work  he 
does.  He  usually  has  a  special  grudge  against  his 
immediate  superior,  the  man  who  directs  his  work. 
He  is  certain  that  he  works  harder  than  that  fellow 
and  that  his  work  is  not  appreciated. 

If  a  few  months  elapse  without  any  increase  in  his 
pay  envelop,  he  complains  to  his  friends  that  his  job 
has  no  future  in  it.  You  hear  him  say:  "All  the 
places  down  there  are  already  filled  and  there  is  no 
chance  for  a  live  young  fellow  like  me.  I  want  to  get 
into  some  place  where  there  is  a  chance  to  climb  up." 


58  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

The  trouble  with  men  of  this  kind,  and  unfortu- 
nately, they  are  numerous,  is  that  they  do  not  know 
what  business  means.  They  ignorantly  think  of  them- 
selves as  business  men,  whereas  they  are  mere  routine 
job  holders,  thinking  more  about  their  pay  than  they 
do  about  the  possibilities  of  their  job,  or  of  how  they 
can  make  it  helpful  to  them  in  places  higher  up. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  every  business  "job"  is 
a  gold  mine.  The  man  who  works  for  the  gold  in  the 
job  rather  than  for  the  money  in  the  pay  envelop,  is 
the  fellow  who  gets  on.  Then,  no  matter  how  humble 
his  job,  he  is  learning  the  A  B  C  of  business. 

But  our  typical  "job  man"  is  doomed  to  be  a  drudge 
all  his  days.     Business  is  much  more  than  a  "job." 

15.  Business  as  a  fascinating  game. — Not  till  the 
reader  has  finished  the  twenty-four  volumes  of  the 
Modern  Business  Text  will  he  have  at  hand  all  the 
evidence  justifying  the  foregoing  sidehead.  Yet  we 
may  give  him  a  glimpse  of  the  truth. 

A  game  is  ordinarily  thought  of  as  play,  but  when 
you  analyze  some  of  the  most  interesting  games,  such 
as  baseball,  tennis  and  golf,  you  will  find  in  all  of 
them  what  is  called  work  when  the  element  of  inter- 
est is  lacking.  Seeking  for  the  element  of  interest 
which  makes  the  "work"  a  pleasure,  you  will  find  it  in 
three  circumstances:  first,  the  number  of  difficulties 
and  obstacles  in  the  way  of  successful  play ;  second,  in 
the  joy  the  human  animal  takes  in  triumphing  over 
obstacles,  particularly  if  at  the  same  time  he  has 
proved    himself    the    better    fellow;    third,    in    the 


NATURE  AND  AIM  OF  BUSINESS  59 

freakish  behavior  of  the  goddess  of  chance,  which 
accounts  for  the  charm  of  gambling. 

All  these  interesting  game  elements  are  found  in 
business,  and  your  real  business  man,  if  he  is  in  good 
health,  gets  as  much  pleasure  out  of  his  day's  "work" 
as  he  ever  did  out  of  any  game  he  played  as  a  boy.  In 
fact,  some  men  get  so  engrossed  in  their  business — 
which  is  only  another  way  of  saying  they  get  so  much 
satisfaction  out  of  its  conduct — that  they  devote  prac- 
tically all  their  waking  hours  to  it  and  cannot  be  per- 
suaded to  give  it  up  even  after  they  have  accumulated 
much  more  money  than  they  or  their  families  can  ever 
need.  Of  course,  this  j)olicy  is  a  mistake.  Not  only 
is  a  man's  health  likely  to  break  down  if  he  overplays 
the  business  game,  but  he  fails  also  to  get  the  most 
out  of  life.  He  breaks  one  of  the  fundamental  laws 
of  psychology,  that  of  variety,  which  is  founded  on 
the  well-known  fact  that  pleasures  pall  as  a  result  of 
frequent  repetition.  Children  unconsciously  obey 
this  law  and  are  forever  varying  their  games. 

But  business  is  such  a  fascinating  game  to  the  man 
who  is  really  interested  in  its  principles  that  many  men 
keep  on  playing  it  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  games, 
and  are  with  the  greatest  difficulty  persuaded  by  their 
relatives  to  abandon  it  when  old  age  comes  on.  Fre- 
quently we  read  in  the  newspapers  about  the  death  of 
some  octogenarian  of  whom  it  is  said,  "He  was  at 
his  desk  only  a  few  days  before  his  death,"  or  "He  has 
not  missed  a  day  at  his  office  in  forty  years."  Young 
men  cannot  understand  such  interest  and  wonder  why 

1—6 


60  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

the  old  man  with  all  his  wealth  still  kept  on  working. 
They  do  not  realize  that  to  him  it  was  not  work. 
He  loved  the  game  and  since  death  had  to  come,  he 
wanted  to  die  playing. 

REVIEW 

How  would  you  define  business?  What  classes  of  workers 
would  you  include  as  business  men  and  what  classes  would  you 
exclude  ? 

Why  is  it  that  money  and  price  movements  touch  the  business 
man  more  closely  than  formerly? 

Discuss  the  view  of  socialists  and  radicals  that  capital  absorbs 
increasing  proportions  of  the  world's  wealth,  and  leaves  a  dimin- 
ishing  proportion    to    labor. 

Why  do  advertising  and  salesmanship  play  such  an  important 
part  in  the  marketing  of  products  which  cater  to  the  newer  busi- 
ness wants? 

How  would  you  distinguish  between  a  profession  and  a  busi- 
ness? What  business  callings  have  recently  become  professions 
and  what  ones  are  rapidly  moving  in  this  direction? 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  PROFIT  PROBLEM 

1.  Cost  and  prices. — The  manager  of  a  going  busi- 
ness concern  must  always  have  in  mind  two  things: 
first,  to  keep  the  costs  at  the  lowest  possible  point 
for  the  goods  produced ;  second,  to  get  for  this  volume 
of  goods  the  highest  possible  price.  It  is  obvious  that 
profits  increase  as  the  gulf  between  costs  and  the 
selling  price  g^ows  wider. 

This  profit  problem  would  be  a  comparatively  sim- 
ple one  if  human  wants  were  fixed  and  unchanging 
in  their  nature,  if  the  seasons  year  after  year  were 
uniform  so  that  the  weather  in  each  month  could  be 
foretold  with  certainty,  and  if  the  population  of  the 
country  were  stationary.  Then  we  should  have  what 
might  be  called  a  static  society,  all  the  trade  and  in- 
dustrial problems  of  which  could  be  solved  for  all 
time.  But  our  twentieth  century  civilization  is  just 
the  opposite — it  is  dynamic  rather  than  static.  Busi- 
ness and  industry  are  in  a  constant  state  of  flux. 
Change  rather  than  stability  is  the  law  of  the  day. 
This  statement  is  especially  true  of  the  United  States, 
for  here  the  population  is  increasing  rapidly  and  the 
tastes  and  needs  of  the  people  are  subject  to  great  and 
sudden  variations. 

Hence  the  man  who  does  business  under  the  con- 


68  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

dit ions  of  modern  civilization,  if  he  is  to  be  really  suc- 
cessful, must  solve  difficult  problems  and  overcome 
obstacles  which  to  many  seem  insurmountable.  In 
this  chapter  we  will  briefly  consider  some  of  these 
problems  and  difficulties. 

2.  Necessity  for  capital. — The  late  Marshall  Field 
of  Chicago,  who  was  often  spoken  of  as  the  "Merchant 
Prince,"  was  once  asked  by  an  acquaintance  what 
particular  achievement  of  his  had  cost  him  the  most 
work  and  worry.  "Saving  my  first  thousand  dol- 
lars" was  his  prompt  reply.  Inasmuch  as  he  began 
his  business  career  as  a  clerk  in  a  small  country  store 
at  a  salary  of  possibly  fifty  dollars  a  year  and  "keep," 
and  never  had  a  "pull"  with  influential  relatives  or 
friends,  it  is  not  remarkable  that  the  efforts  necessary 
to  save  that  first  thousand  dollars  loomed  up  at  the 
age  of  sixty  in  much  greater  proportion  than  all  the 
brilliant  achievements  which  had  turned  the  first  thou- 
sand dollars  into  many  millions. 

Mr.  Field  realized,  even  as  a  boy,  the  importance  of 
capital  in  business.  Economists  usually  state  that 
there  are  three  factors  essential  for  the  production  of 
wealth — namely,  land,  labor  and  capital.  Mr.  Field 
had  never  read  a  book  on  political  economy  and  as  he 
did  not  intend  to  be  a  farmer,  he  did  not  go  out  after 
land.  He  doubtless  knew  that  both  labor  and  capital 
were  necessary  factors.  He  had  command  of  his  own 
labor  and  he  used  it  to  acquire  the  needed  capital. 

It  should  not  be  necessary  to  show  that  a  business 
cannot  be  done  without  capital  and  that  a  man  can- 


THE  PROFIT  PROBLEM  63 

not  start  a  business  if  he  has  no  capital.  Yet  it  is 
necessary,  for  most  people  have  only  a  hazy  idea  of 
what  capital  means.  They  generally  confuse  it  with 
money,  yet  the  two  things  are  entirely  different. 
Money  is  a  mere  medium  of  exchange,  whereas  capital 
is  an  instrument  of  production,  or  some  form  of 
wealth,  such  as  raw  cotton,  or  wheat,  which  by  labor 
can  be  converted  into  something  more  valuable.  The 
money  supply  of  the  United  States  in  1916  amounted 
to  less  than  four  thousand  million  dollars,  whereas,  the 
capital,  which  includes  all  the  factories,  railroads,  raw 
materials  and  goods  passing  thru  the  channels  of  trade 
from  producer  to  consumer,  was  many  times  greater. 
We  always  value  capital  in  terms  of  money,  and 
people  commonly  think  of  capital  as  so  much  money, 
yet  money  is  only  an  instrument  which  men  use  in  the 
purchase  and  valuation  of  capital. 

Just  as  a  man  cannot  chop  a  tree  down  without  an 
axe,  the  axe  being  capital  to  the  wood-chopper,  so  a 
man  cannot  manufacture  any  article,  even  on  a  small 
scale,  unless  he  has  the  necessary  tools  and  raw  ma- 
terials ;  nor  can  he  start  out  as  a  small  tradesman  un- 
less he  has  the  necessary  stock  on  his  shelves.  In 
other  words,  he  must  have  capital. 

3.  Capital  got  only  by  saving. — When  you  study 
the  saving  process,  you  will  understand  why  that  first 
thousand  dollars  appeared  so  large  in  the  memory  of 
Marshall  Field.  He  had  had  a  thousand  chances  to 
spend  it,  but  he  had  turned  them  all  down.  He  had 
"saved"  it. 


64  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

People  are  prone  to  think  of  saving  as  an  easy  nega- 
tive virtue  requiring  no  great  energy  or  effort.  The 
man  who  produces,  who  makes  money,  is  usually 
thought  of  as  the  dynamic  force  in  business  and  as 
deserving  the  most  credit  for  industrial  progress  and 
development.  The  man  who  saves  is  often  con- 
temptuously referred  to  as  a  "tight-wad."  He  is 
not  thought  of  as  a  doer,  but  as  one  who  refrains  from 
doing.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  saving  is  the  result  of 
positive  qualities  and  is  very  hard  work.  In  the 
United  States,  indeed,  it  is  much  harder  to  save  money 
than  it  is  to  make  it.  Saving  means  the  firm,  the  con- 
stant, the  strenuous  exercise  of  the  will  to  forego  cer- 
tain pleasures  or  satisfactions  today  in  order  that  your 
future  may  be  more  golden.  You  must  trample  ruth- 
lessly on  certain  wants  now  in  order  that  you  may 
gratify  them  more  generously  a  year  or  ten  years 
hence. 

The  saving  habit  is  one  most  difficult  to  acquire,  and 
like  all  habits,  it  is  sometimes  carried  to  extremes, 
producing  the  miser.  Or  it  is  persisted  in  illogically, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  old  lady,  who  remarked  that  she 
and  her  husband  had  "slaved  and  slaved  and  saved 
and  saved  all  our  lives  in  order  that  we  might  have 
something  to  live  on  when  we  came  to  die." 

At  any  rate,  no  man  can  get  into  business  with  his 
own  capital,  unless  it  has  been  saved  by  himself  or  by 
his  ancestors.  If  he  has  no  capital  of  his  own  and 
cannot  borrow  the  use  of  a  friend's  capital,  he  can- 


THE  PROFIT  PROBLEM  65 

not  go  into  business  on  his  own  account.  He  must 
be  an  employe. 

While  a  vast  amount  of  business  is  done  on  bor- 
rowed capital,  yet  in  almost  all  cases  the  borrowed 
dollar  works  side  by  side  with  a  dollar  belonging  to 
the  proprietor.  Experience  has  proved  that  it  is  not 
safe  to  lend  money  to  men  who  have  not  proved  their 
ability  to  save  money.  A  young  man  once  asked  a 
well-to-do  friend  to  back  him  in  an  attractive  business 
venture.  The  older  man  said,  "My  boy,  when  you 
come  to  me  with  a  thousand  dollars  of  your  own  money 
saved  out  of  your  income,  I  will  match  it." 

The  first  difficulty  in  the  business  man's  path,  the 
necessity  for  capital  and  for  saving,  is  usually  much 
underestimated  by  young  men.  Listen  to  the  great 
railroad  builder,  James  J.  Hill: 

If  you  want  to  know  whether  you  are  destined  to  be  a 
success  or  a  failure  in  life,  you  can  easily  find  out.  The  test 
is  simple,  and  it  is  infallible.  Are  you  able  to  save  money? 
If  not,  drop  out.  You  will  lose.  You  may  think  not,  but 
you  will  lose  as  sure  as  you  live.  The  seed  of  success  is  not 
in  you. 

4.  Nature  of  competition. — If  we  analyze  any  busi- 
ness, whether  a  small  cigar  shop,  a  large  depart- 
ment store  or  an  automobile  factory,  we  find  in 
each  case  that  the  making  of  profit  would  be  a  very 
simple  matter  but  for  the  behavior  of  certain  other 
people.  Across  the  street  from  our  cigar  store  an- 
other man  fits  up  a  cigar  shop  more  attractive  than 


66  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

ours.  He  even  undersells  us  on  some  popular  brands 
and  draws  away  some  of  our  best  customers.  The 
automobile  manufacturer  discovers  that  other  manu- 
facturers are  offering  on  the  market  an  automobile 
apparently  as  good  as  his  at  a  lower  price.  The  owner 
of  the  department  store  sees  his  profits  begin  to  decline 
because  many  of  his  customers  are  learning  to  patron- 
ize mail-order  houses  and  are  getting  goods  by  parcel 
post,  or  perhaps  because  his  large  profits  of  the  pre- 
ceding years  have  convinced  another  man  that  the 
town  is  big  enough  for  two  department  stores. 

In  the  foregoing  paragraph  we  have  concrete  in- 
stances of  what  is  known  as  competition,  a  word  de- 
rived from  the  Latin  and  meaning  etymologically  a 
"seeking  together."  Whenever  there  are  two  or  more 
men  trying  to  sell  the  same  article  in  the  same  market, 
there  we  have  competition.  If  there  is  only  one  pro- 
ducer and  one  salesman,  we  have  monopoly,  a  word 
coming  from  the  Greek  and  meaning  "to  sell  alone.'* 
It  needs  no  argument  to  show  that  a  man  who  is  go- 
ing to  succeed  in  the  face  of  competition  must  be  very 
wide-awake,  for  he  cannot  get  trade  or  hold  it  long 
unless  he  is  the  best  in  his  line.  If  the  competitor 
across  the  street  is  a  closer  buyer,  a  harder  worker, 
a  better  advertiser  or  a  better  salesman  our  friend 
will  lose  his  customers  and  his  chance  of  profit. 

The  law  of  competition  is  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
It  seems  a  brutal  law  to  some  people,  and  it  is  often 
held  responsible  for  much  deceit  and  misrepresenta- 
tion.    For  example,  some  critics  hold  that  competition 


THE  PROFIT  PROBLEM  67 

inevitably  leads  to  food  adulteration,  shoddy  clothing, 
unsafe  tenement  and  apartment  houses.  We  will  not 
stop  to  discuss  this  criticism  here.  The  important 
point  now  to  note  is  the  fact  that  competition  is  in- 
exorable and  compels  the  business  man  to  do  his  best 
or  go  down.  Competition  inevitably  brings  to  the 
top  the  strongest  men  who  take  up  business,  the  men 
who  know  the  most  about  the  principles  of  business 
and  are  the  most  skilful  and  energetic  in  their  ap- 
plication. 

That  competition  has  been  called  the  "life  of  trade" 
is  not  at  all  remarkable.  Every  man  knows  by  ex- 
perience how  indifferent  to  his  customers'  opinions  is 
the  average  man  who  enjoys  monopoly.  Frequently 
a  tradesman's  monopoly  is  due  to  his  location.  He 
is  in  a  small  town  the  trade  of  which  does  not  tempt  a 
competitor.  He  lets  his  stock  run  low,  is  frequently 
out  of  articles  called  for,  and  has  no  patience  with  the 
whims  of  his  customers.  In  other  words,  he  runs  a 
poor  store.  Let  a  competitor  enter  the  field,  and  signs 
of  life  in  the  first  store  will  quickly  begin  to  appear. 

5.  Unfair  competition. — Not  only  does  our  busi- 
ness man  have  to  compete  on  equal  terms  with  men 
like  himself — we  will  assume  that  he  is  an  honest  and 
an  honorable  man,  anxious  to  make  a  profit  by  render- 
ing real  service  to  his  customers — but  also  with  men 
who  will  not  "play  fair."  The  man  who  takes  ad- 
vantage of  his  customers'  ignorance  and  palms  off  on 
them  second  quality  goods  as  if  they  were  first  quality, 
is  no  better  than  a  thief.     He  takes  something  for 


68  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

which  he  gives  no  equivalent.  Such  men  never 
achieve  great  success  in  business.  They  are  usually 
found  out.  And  even  tho  they  reform  and  cease  to 
cheat  and  misrepresent,  people  refuse  to  believe  in 
them.  Nevertheless,  our  real  business  man  must  meet 
much  unscrupulous  competition  and  it  will  give  him  a 
lot  of  annoyance. 

Some  of  the  enemies  of  competition,  notably  the 
socialists,  maintain  that  it  tends  to  drag  business  down 
to  the  lowest  level.  The  honest  business  man,  they 
hold,  camiot  do  business  honestly,  for  then  he  will  be 
undersold,  or  apparently  undersold,  by  the  liars  and 
conscienceless.  Undoubtedly  there  is  danger  here  and 
many  weak  men  have  succumbed  to  temptation,  jus- 
tifying their  moral  lapse  on  the  ground  of  necessity. 
But  anybody  familiar  with  business  developments  dur- 
ing the  last  two  generations,  especially  in  the  United 
States,  does  not  doubt  that  there  has  been  a  steady  lift- 
ing of  business  standards.  Almost  no  other  fact  con- 
nected with  business  has  received  so  much  comment 
in  recent  years. 

Unfair  competition  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  foes 
which  an  honest  business  man  must  overcome.  For- 
tunately it  is  not  the  "life  of  trade"  and  it  leads  to  the 
death  of  the  unfair  competitor.  It  is  opposed  to  eco- 
nomic interest  and  to  moral  sentiment  and  must  grow 
relatively  less  formidable  as  buyers  become  more  in- 
telligent. 

We  will  make  no  attempt  here  to  describe  the  vari- 
ous tricks  and  schemes  which  are  considered  unfair 


THE  PROFIT  PROBLEM  69 

competition.  Recent  court  decisions  in  cases  against 
alleged  monopolies  have  listed  certain  practices  which 
are  considered  unfair,  but  these  are  treated  more  prop- 
erly in  Volume  24  of  the  Modern  Business  Text. 
The  purpose  of  this  section  is  to  make  the  reader  see 
that  unfair  competition  is  a  real  peril  in  the  path  of  the 
business  man  who  would  play  the  game  honestly. 

6.  Building  an  organization. — Let  us  suppose  that 
a  man  has  control  of  sufficient  capital  for  the  estab- 
lishment and  conduct  of  a  business  large  enough  to 
permit  the  reduction  of  costs  to  a  minimum.  His  first 
important  task  will  be  the  building  of  an  organization. 
He  must  find  men  upon  whom  he  can  rely  to  do  the 
work  he  wants  done. 

Even  tho  our  business  man  has  had  abundant  ex- 
perience and  is  equipped  by  training  as  well  as  by 
ability  for  the  management  of  large  affairs,  his  task 
of  finding  competent  and  trustworthy  lieutenants  will 
be  a  difficult  one.  He  will  need  men  who  command 
large  salaries,  men  of  his  own  type,  men  who  know  as 
much  as  he  himself  about  this  or  that  side  of  his  busi- 
ness. Such  men  are  not  out  of  work.  They  already 
have  positions  and  are  reluctant  to  give  them  up  to 
work  under  a  boss  of  whose  temper  and  character  they 
do  not  feel  certain.  Our  business  man,  since  he  has 
had  experience,  doubtless  knows  many  of  the  best  men 
connected  with  his  line  of  business  and  is  able  to  base 
his  selections  of  men  on  first  hand  knowledge.  Even 
then  his  task  is  not  easy,  and  he  frequently  will  be 
unable  to  get  for  some  important  post  the  man  whom 


70  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

he  has  decided  upon  as  being  the  one  best  fitted  for  it. 

Having  obtained  the  best  men  he  can  find  for  the 
most  important  positions,  those  requiring  what  is  usu- 
ally called  executive  ability,  the  task  of  filling  the 
lower  ranks  must  then  be  undertaken.  Here  mistakes 
are  less  costly,  for  the  workers  bear  less  responsibility, 
yet  it  is  most  important  that  even  the  humblest  task  be 
performed  properly  and  on  time.  The  negligence  of 
a  shipping  clerk  may  cost  the  business  a  valuable  cus- 
tomer, and  a  bookkeeper's  mistake  may  lead  to  mis- 
understandings and  recriminations  or  to  an  overdraft 
at  the  bank. 

The  building  of  an  organization  for  a  business  is  so 
important  that  it  ought  never  to  be  undertaken  by  a 
man  who  himself  has  not  been  trained  in  the  business. 
A  man  without  experience,  no  matter  how  much  capi- 
tal he  possesses,  should  beware  of  making  the  experi- 
ment. To  such  a  man  business  may  seem  a  very 
simple  and  easy  matter.  Doubtless  baseball  looks 
like  a  very  easy  game  to  many  of  the  spectators,  and 
the  better  the  players  the  easier  the  game  looks.  Busi- 
ness is  a  much  more  difficult  game  than  any  that  is 
played  for  sport,  and  the  job  of  getting  together  a 
really  efficient  business  organization  requires  much 
more  knowledge  and  judgment  than  does  the  build- 
ing of  a  champion  baseball  team. 

7.  Labor  troubles. — Two  great  cost  factors  of  busi- 
ness are  the  salaries  and  wages  paid  to  employes  and 
the  interest  on  the  capital  invested.  The  experienced 
business  man,  with  the  advice  and  cooperation  of  his 


THE  PROFIT  PROBLEM  71 

banker,  is  able  to  keep  the  interest  factor  fairly  well 
under  control.  In  abnormal  times,  such  as  prevailed 
after  the  European  war  broke  out  in  1914,  the  rate  of 
interest  on  capital  is  subject  to  unusual  fluctuations, 
but  in  ordinary  times  its  stability  can  safely  be  counted 
upon. 

But  the  cost  of  labor  is  never  a  stable  factor  and  it 
is  one  of  the  problems  which  give  most  worry  to  our 
manufacturers.  In  figuring  output  and  prices  for  the 
coming  season,  a  manufacturer  must  estimate  the  wage 
cost  per  unit.  A  month  or  two  later,  after  he  has 
closed  many  contracts  for  delivery,  his  men  may  strike 
for  higher  wages,  and  his  plant  may  be  idle  during 
many  weeks  of  futile  negotiations  with  his  men.  The 
so-called  industrial  discontent,  which  has  been  the  sub- 
ject of  many  books  and  magazine  articles,  is  an  im- 
portant social  question,  but  from  our  point  of  view  it 
is  a  grave  business  problem,  for  it  makes  business  more 
difficult  and  increases  the  uncertainty  of  profit. 

We  will  not  consider  here  the  reasons  why  the  labor 
question  is  of  more  importance  than  formerly,  nor 
will  we  describe  the  various  means  that  have  been 
adopted  to  prevent  strikes  and  lockouts.  Here  it  is 
enough  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  hiring  of 
labor  for  business  purposes  involves  a  positive  and 
always  imminent  risk.1  Doubtless  the  very  size  of 
modern  business  is  largely  responsible  for  it,  for  em- 

i  In  the  Modern  Business  Texts  on  "Plant  Management1'  and  "Office 
Management"  the  reader  will  find  a  description  of  various  plans  that  have 
heen  adopted  to  produce  and  preserve  harmony  and  satisfaction  among 
the  employes  of  any  industrial  concern. 


72  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

p loves  too  seldom  come  into  personal  contact  with 
their  employer.  The  corporation  they  are  working 
for  seems  to  them  a  hard,  impersonal,  unsympathetic 
taskmaster. 

Whatever  measures  or  plans  an  employer  may 
adopt  to  hold  his  men  and  to  keep  them  satisfied,  no 
effort  should  be  spared  to  make  the  men  feel  that  he 
personally  is  really  interested  in  their  condition  and 
very  glad  when  one  of  them  has  earned  a  promotion. 
In  the  case  of  a  corporation  this  is  the  duty  of  the 
president  or  general  manager,  and  it  would  be  well 
if  the  men  could  feel  that  the  executive  had  the  cor- 
dial backing  of  the  entire  board  of  directors.  If  un- 
happily some  of  the  directors  think  only  of  dividends, 
they  must  be  kept  in  the  background.  Such  directors 
may  work  infinite  mischief  to  a  business. 

8.  Unforeseen  price  changes. — Few  men  realize 
that  the  prices  of  commodities  are  subject  to  hidden 
and  incalculable  forces.  In  the  long  run  the  prices 
of  most  articles  tend  to  keep  close  to  their  costs  of 
production,  but  at  times  market  prices  depart  widely 
from  costs.  The  price  of  any  article  on  any  day  is 
explained  by  the  demand  in  its  relation  to  the  supply. 
If  the  demand  for  an  article  is  not  a  constant  quantity, 
the  price  is  subject  to  fluctuations.  These  cannot  be 
foreseen  and  the  business  man  must  therefore  be  pre- 
pared for  the  unexpected.  He  may  be  obliged  to  pay 
a  higher  price  for  his  raw  materials  than  he  expected, 
and  when  he  is  ready  to  market  his  finished  product, 
it  may  happen  that  he  and  his  competitors  have  over- 


THE  PROFIT  PROBLEM  73 

estimated  the  demand  and  will  be  obliged  to  sell  at 
prices  barely  covering  the  cost  of  production. 

The  risk  of  loss  thru  price  changes  is  least  in  the 
case  of  certain  so-called  staples,  the  consumption  of 
which  is  pretty  well  known.  The  grocer,  for  example, 
incurs  little  risk  of  loss  thru  changes  in  the  prices 
of  such  commodities  as  flour,  salt,  sugar,  etc.  In  gen- 
eral, a  business  dealing  in  staples  is  safer  than  a  busi- 
ness dealing  in  so-called  "fancies,"  for  the  demand  for 
the  "fancies"  may  vanish  at  any  time. 

Furthermore,  the  prices  of  commodities  in  general 
depend  on  the  value  of  gold,  the  money  metal.  If  the 
world's  stock  of  gold  does  not  increase  in  proper 
amount,  the  value  of  gold  tends  to  become  greater. 
That  means  that  the  prices  of  commodities  in  general 
will  tend  downwards.  Such  a  decline  of  prices  often 
puzzles  business  men,  for  most  of  them  do  not  under- 
stand the  money  question  and  cannot  grasp  the  cause 
of  price-changes. 

No  matter  how  much  thought  and  study  a  man  in 
business  gives  to  the  subject  of  prices,  nor  how  keen 
he  is  in  watching  for  circumstances  that  affect  them, 
he  is  certain  every  now  and  then  to  be  caught  napping. 
No  business  man  can  hope  always  to  sell  his  goods  at 
a  profit.  Sometimes  it  is  a  wise  policy  to  let  them  go 
at  a  loss. 

9.  Perils  of  advertising. — It  is  a  familiar  saying 
that  it  pays  to  advertise.  Men  tell  glibly  of  fortunes 
made  by  advertising  wisely,  but  omit  to  tell  of  its 
enormous  wastes.     Advertising  is  such  an  important 


74.  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

aid  to  profit-making  that  it  is  the  subject  of  two  of 
the  Modern  Business  Texts.  For  the  purpose  of  this 
chapter  it  is  sufficient  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
advertising,  when  done  by  men  ignorant  of  the  prin- 
ciples, is  one  of  the  easiest  known  ways  of  throwing 
away  money.  It  is  estimated  that  over  a  billion  dol- 
lars is  spent  every  year  in  the  United  States  in  the 
payment  of  advertising  bills,  and  experts  have  said 
that  only  about  ten  per  cent  of  this  sum  is  wisely  ex- 
pended. Money  spent  on  advertising  is  wasted  if  it 
does  not  add  to  the  prestige  and  good-will  of  the  ad- 
vertiser or  if  it  fails  to  increase  the  demand  for  the 
goods  advertised.  Much  advertising  fails  to  produce 
either  of  these  results,  and  sometimes  an  advertise- 
ment, because  of  its  objectionable  form  or  content, 
does  positive  harm  to  the  business. 

But  in  these  days  almost  no  business  can  achieve 
great  success  without  the  aid  of  advertising.  Hence 
the  business  man  who  is  seeking  a  profit  must  take  all 
the  risks  involved  in  advertising.  He  should,  there- 
fore, be  himself  familiar  with  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  advertising  and  should  know  enough  to  em- 
ploy good  advertising  counsel. 

10.  Bad  debts. — Business  today  is  dependent  on 
credit.  Seldom  does  the  manufacturer  get  cash  when 
he  delivers  goods  to  the  jobber  or  wholesaler.  He  re- 
ceives a  promise  to  pay  at  a  later  date,  or  he  keeps 
the  account  upon  his  books  with  the  understanding 
that  payment  is  to  be  made  on  or  before  a  certain  date. 
The  wholesaler  gives  credit  to  the  retailer,  and  the  re- 


THE  PROFIT  PROBLEM  75 

tailer  in  his  turn  gives  credit  to  his  customers,  sending 
out  monthly  bills.  This  credit  system,  complicated 
and  hazardous  as  it  seems  on  the  surface,  is  found  so 
efficient  that  very  few  businesses  are  now  run  upon 
a  strictly  cash  basis.  The  methods  of  giving  credit 
differ  in  different  countries,  but  the  essential  principle 
is  the  same  everywhere. 

The  sale  of  merchandise  on  credit  contains  possibili- 
ties of  great  loss.  This  the  business  man  must  assume 
and  guard  against,  for  his  losses  will  be  deducted  from 
his  profit.  He  must  be  wise  in  his  extension  of  credit 
to  customers,  and  exceedingly  diligent  and  tactful  in 
the  collection  of  debts  past  due.  These  two  functions 
are  so  important  that  most  business  houses  maintain 
a  credit  and  collection  department  under  the  manage- 
ment of  well-trained  specialists.  This  subject  is  fully 
treated  in  the  Modern  Business  Text  on  "Credit  and 
the  Credit  Man." 

The  salesman  is  often  looked  upon  as  the  most  im- 
portant servant  of  a  business  concern;  he  finds  the  cus- 
tomer and  sells  the  goods.  But  his  work  will  be  in 
vain  if  he  has  not  the  guidance  of  a  wise  credit  man. 
If  despite  all  precautions  a  mistake  is  made,  the  col- 
lection department  must  prove  its  worth.  Con- 
scientious salesmen,  guided  by  an  alert  credit  man, 
reduce  the  worries  of  the  collection  department  to  a 
minimum. 

11.  Unwise  laws. — In  the  United  States,  and  per- 
haps to  a  lesser  extent  in  other  civilized  countries,  laws 
have  been  passed  which  needlessly  hamper  the  business 

1—7  * 


76  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

man's  activities.  From  a  business  point  of  view  it  is 
a  misfortune  that  most  of  the  members  of  our  legisla- 
tures and  of  Congress  have  been  trained  for  the 
law  and  have  had  no  experience  in  business.  This 
condition  is  undoubtedly  responsible  for  the  fact  that 
business  and  the  law  are  frequently  out  of  adjustment. 

For  example,  the  Federal  Anti-Trust  Act  of  1890 
was  the  outcome  of  popular  antipathy  to  monopoly. 
When  this  law  was  passed  it  aroused  little  or  no  crit- 
icism, and  many  prominent  lawyers  declared  it  to  be 
an  excellent  statute.  Yet  in  the  next  twenty  years  it 
received  various  interpretations  in  the  courts,  and  so 
uncertain  were  lawyers  and  business  men  of  its  real 
meaning  that  many  important  and  desirable  business 
enterprises  were  halted.  It  undoubtedly  greatly 
lessened  the  profits  of  American  enterprise.  The  law 
has  been  supplemented  by  additional  legislation  in  the 
hope  that  the  growth  of  monopoly  may  be  checked 
without  any  check  to  the  development  of  legitimate 
business  and  industry. 

A  concrete  instance  of  what  many  good  business 
men  consider  an  evil  effect  of  the  Anti-Trust  Act  is 
illustrated  by  the  controversy  over  "price  mainte- 
nance." Certain  manufacturers  of  articles  for  which 
they  have  created  a  wide  demand  thru  advertising 
have  insisted  upon  fixing  the  price  at  which  the  re- 
tailer shall  sell,  and  have  refused  to  sell  to  dealers 
who  would  not  conform  to  such  an  arrangement. 
Some  retailers  protested  and  invoked  the  aid  of  the 


THE  PROFIT  PROBLEM  77 

law,  holding  that  the  "price  maintenance"  policy  was 
monopolistic  in  character. 

The  lack  of  uniformity  in  the  legislation  of  different 
states  with  respect  to  important  business  matters,  such 
as  bills  of  lading  and  the  rights  and  liabilities  of  cor- 
poration stockholders,  is  a  source  of  annoyance  to 
business  men  in  the  United  States.  The  American 
Bar  Association  deserves  credit  for  its  determined 
effort  to  correct  this  evil. 

The  lawyer  is  the  only  member  of  the  community 
who  profits  by  the  situation.  The  prudent  business 
man,  before  undertaking  a  new  venture  or  entering 
into  any  new  "deal,"  feels  obliged  to  lay  the  entire 
matter  before  his  attorney  and  to  delay  action  until 
he  has  a  favorable  opinion.  The  numerous  legal 
obstacles  which  lie  in  the  path  of  successful  business 
lessen  the  profits  of  business  and  increase  the  fees  of 
the  lawyer.  Here  is  one  reason  why  the  legal  profes- 
sion gets  a  much  greater  revenue  from  business  than 
it  does  from  all  other  sources,  and  why  young  men 
preparing  for  the  law  are  generally  advised  to  special- 
ize as  much  as  possible  in  business  subjects  in  their 
undergraduate  work  in  college. 

12.  Climatic  uncertainties. — Some  articles  are  in 
pretty  constant  demand  thruout  the  year  regardless 
of  the  weather  or  of  the  seasons,  but  for  many  articles 
the  demand  depends  very  much  upon  climatic  con- 
ditions. A  late  spring  followed  by  an  unusually  colcj 
summer  causes  loss  to  dealers  in  light  summer  cloth* 


78  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

ing;  the  dealer  in  Panama  and  straw  hats  may  find  the 
hulk  of  his  eapital  locked  up  for  a  year,  and  the  manu- 
facturers may  find  in  many  cases  that  collections  are 
impossible;  summer  resorts  do  not  get  their  expected 
patronage.  In  the  same  way  an  unusually  mild  win- 
ter lessens  profits  in  furs  and  in  heavy  winter  clothing, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  by  a  freak  of  fashion 
women  sometimes  wear  furs  in  summer. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  climatic  conditions  have 
great  bearing  upon  the  farmer's  crops.  Too  much 
rain  in  one  month  or  too  little  in  another  may  lessen 
the  yield  of  corn  or  of  wheat  or  of  cotton,  and  cause 
an  abnormal  advance  of  the  price.  In  the  same  way, 
many  of  the  raw  materials  of  the  manufacturer  are 
exposed  to  price  fluctuations  due  to  the  uncertainties 
of  our  climate-  These  are  risks  which  the  business 
man,  whether  he  be  a  trader  or  a  manufacturer,  must 
assume.  They  are  a  real  and  constant  menace  to  his 
profit. 

13.  Changes  in  fashions  and  fads. — New  human 
wants  are  constantly  appearing.  Women  take  de- 
light in  new  kinds  of  apparel  and  men  are  always  seek- 
ing new  means  of  amusement.  The  bicycle  gave  way 
to  the  motorcycle  and  the  automobile,  and  the  latter 's 
supremacy  promises  to  be  soon  brought  into  question 
by  the  airplane  and  the  dirigible.  A  wave  of  interest 
in  food  values  may  sweep  over  the  country  and  cause  a 
change  in  the  dietary  of  millions  of  people  and  thus 
affect  the  sales  and  profits  of  many  dealers  in  food 
products. 


THE  PROFIT  PROBLEM  79 

Many  changes  in  demand  are  so  gradual  that  busi- 
ness men  are  able  to  make  adjustments  without  loss. 
But  others  are  so  sudden  and  sweeping  that  some 
houses  are  caught  loaded  with  goods  that  cannot  be 
sold  at  a  profit.  Manufacturers  of  articles,  the  de- 
mand for  which  depends  upon  the  permanence  of  a 
prevailing  fashion  or  fad,  are  not  considered  desirable 
risks  by  bankers,  for  their  assets  are  liable  to  sudden 
shrinkage  at  any  time.  Naturally,  men  engaged  in 
any  business  which  locks  up  capital  in  goods  likely 
to  lose  their  value  because  of  a  shifting  fashion  or 
caprice,  must  make  a  larger  profit  on  their  turnover 
than  dealers  in  staples  or  things  for  which  the  demand 
is  fairly  constant.  Only  the  prospect  of  a  large  profit 
will  tempt  one  into  a  business  in  which  the  risks  are 
above  the  average. 

14.  Brains  and  will-power. — Our  survey  of  the 
obstacles  that  lie  in  the  way  of  profit-making  suggests 
a  revision  of  the  older  economist's  formula  to  the  effect 
that  wealth  is  the  product  of  land,  labor  and  capital. 
The  economist  includes  under  labor  the  man  whose 
work  we  have  just  been  describing,  namely,  the  busi- 
ness man  who  is  aiming  to  make  a  profit  at  the  risk  of 
loss.  In  recent  books  on  economics  he  is  called  the 
entrepreneur  or  enterpriser.  He  is  the  mainspring  of 
all  business  and  industry.  Without  his  fearless,  intel- 
ligent and  determined  effort,  capital  would  be  idle, 
land  unutilized,  and  labor  unemployed. 

However,  because  of  the  fact  that  the  word  laborer 
is  usually  applied  to  men  who  work  for  wages  and  is 


80  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

not  held  to  include  those  who  assume  business  risks,  it 
would  seem  desirable  to  add  a  fourth  factor  of  pro- 
duction to  the  economist's  scientific  formula,  and  that 
fourth  factor  must  manifestly  be  "brains."  Unless 
the  labor  and  capital  are  directed  wisely  by  intelli- 
gence, and  unless  the  cultivation  of  land  is  ruled  by 
intelligence,  there  can  evidently  be  little  wealth  pro- 
duced. This  is  certainly  true  under  our  modern  com- 
petitive system  of  business  and  industry,  and  it  would 
still  be  true  even  tho  the  competition  were  abolished 
and  all  business  and  industry  were  taken  over  by  the 
state.  To  win  their  case  the  socialists  must  prove 
that  the  management  of  the  country's  business  and  in- 
dustry in  the  hands  of  men  selected  by  the  people 
would  be  more  intelligent  and  efficient  than  it  now  is 
in  the  hands  of  men  who  have  proved  their  right  to 
command  by  their  triumph  in  the  hard  struggle  of 
modern  business.  As  I  have  already  said,  competi- 
tion leads  to  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  and  this  means 
in  plain  English  that  the  great  businesses  and  indus- 
tries of  the  United  States  are  now  managed  by  the 
men  best  fitted  for  the  work.  They  have  played  the 
game  hard  and  sometimes  too  roughly,  but  there  can 
be  no  question  about  their  right  to  leadership. 

REVIEW 

Distinguish  between  money  and  capital.  Give  an  illustration 
of  this  distinction. 

What  do  you  understand  by  competition;  by  monopoly?  How 
would  you,  if  in  business,  meet  competition? 

How  would  you  go  about  building  up  an  organization  for  a 
business? 


THE  PROFIT  PROBLEM  81 

In  the  long  run,  prices  keep  close  to  production  costs  but  at 
times   market  prices   vary  widely.      Why? 

In  what  ways  do  climatic  conditions  and  fads  affect  demand  for 
many  commodities  ? 

What  are  the  three  factors  of  wealth,  according  to  the  econ- 
omist? Under  which  factor  would  you  place  the  business  man? 
What  other  factor  could  you  add  to  this  list? 


CHAPTER  III 

ECONOMICS  AND  SOCIOLOGY 

1.  Custom  or  group  habits. — Just  as  an  individual 
forms  the  habit  of  acting  in  a  particular  way  under 
given  conditions,  so  a  group  of  people  living  in  the 
same  environment  and  subject  to  identical  laws  fall 
into  the  habit  of  doing  things  in  the  same  way.  In  the 
country,  for  example,  people  eat  dinner  at  midday ;  in 
the  city  they  usually  dine  in  the  evening.  In  the 
United  States  people  are  in  the  habit  of  eating  three 
times  a  day,  while  in  some  European  countries  they  eat 
five  times  a  day.  When  groups  of  people  have  the 
same  habits,  these  habits  are  called  customs. 

It  is  important  that  the  business  man  know  some- 
thing about  the  origin  and  cause  of  custom.  Society 
is  a  network  of  customs.  Unconsciously  people  are 
slaves  of  custom  just  as  the  individual  is  often  the 
slave  of  habit.  Hence  the  business  man  must  take 
custom  into  account,  both  in  the  manufacturing  and 
marketing  of  his  goods. 

2.  Aim  of  sociology. — During  the  last  century 
scientific  men  have  begun  to  recognize  the  importance 
of  those  group  actions  which  are  called  customs  and 
have  made  careful  study  of  their  nature,  gradually 
reducing  the  fruits  of  their  studies  and  investigations 
into  that  systematic  form  which  is  essential  to  science. 

82 


ECONOMICS  AND  SOCIOLOGY  83 

Thus  has  developed  the  new  science  which  is  called 
sociology.  Its  aim  is  to  explain  the  conduct  of  men 
when  acting  in  groups.  It  differs,  therefore,  from 
psychology,  which  is  concerned  only  with  the  con- 
duct of  the  individual. 

Many  customs  have  a  psychological  origin,  owing 
their  existence  mainly  to  the  satisfaction  they  give  to 
the  individuals  constituting  a  group.  The  study  of 
such  customs  is  sometimes  called  sociological  psy- 
chology. 

Sociology  is  evidently  a  very  broad  science.  The 
word  comes  from  a  Latin  word,  socius  (companion) 
and  a  Greek  word  logos  (science)  ;  so  etymologically 
it  means  the  science  of  companionship  or  society.  Its 
business  is  to  explain  a  great  multitude  of  phenomena 
arising  out  of  human  relationships.  All  human  in- 
stitutions, such  as  the  school,  the  university,  the 
church,  marriage,  divorce,  the  poor  houses,  the 
asylums,  the  charitable  organizations  and  the  prisons, 
fall  within  the  scope  of  sociology.  What  are  the 
causes  of  these  and  other  institutions?  What  forces 
have  made  them  ?  How  can  they  be  improved  ?  The 
sociologist  is  concerned  with  questions  of  this  sort. 

Naturally,  the  field  being  so  broad  and  the  problems 
so  numerous,  no  single  man  can  hope  to  solve  them 
all.  Hence  we  have  specialists  in  sociology,  some 
devoting  themselves  to  the  theory  or  general  principles 
of  the  science,  others  to  the  intensive  study  of  par- 
ticular customs  or  institutions. 

Sociology  is  of  importance  to  the  business  man,  for 


84  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

business  institutions  and  customs  are  among  the  sub- 
jects of  its  investigation.  The  Trade  Union,  for  ex- 
ample, is  an  institution  possessing  interest  to  the 
sociologist  as  well  as  to  the  economist. 

In  the  Modern  Business  Text  no  volume  is  de- 
voted specifically  to  the  science  of  sociology,  yet  thru- 
out  them  all  a  subscriber  will  find  many  conclusions 
which  are  based  upon  the  investigations  of  that  science. 

3.  Socialism  not  sociology. — Sociology  must  not 
be  confused  with  socialism.  The  latter  is  not  a  science 
at  all,  but  the  dream  of  a  new  social  state  in  which 
there  shall  be  no  poverty  or  want.  The  sociologist 
seeks  first  to  find  the  causes  of  existing  social  institu- 
tions and  thus  be  able  to  point  out  the  ways  of  better- 
ment; the  socialist,  instead  of  making  a  scientific  study 
of  existing  institutions,  assumes  that  certain  of  them 
are  evil  and  should  be  entirely  abolished  by  law.  The 
socialist  believes  in  the  abolition  of  the  private  owner- 
ship of  capital,  that  the  country's  great  machinery  of 
production  and  distribution,  its  railroads  and  factories 
and  shops,  should  be  owned  by  the  state,  and  that  all 
men  would  then  have  employment.  The  sociologist 
is  concerned  with  the  causes  of  unemployment  and 
with  any  evil  influences  affecting  the  conditions  under 
which  men  live  and  work.  He  knows  that  he  cannot 
prescribe  a  remedy  for  any  ill  until  he  has  found  its 
cause. 

4.  Aim  of  economics. — The  science  of  business  is 
the  subject  of  Volume  2  of  the  Modern  Business  Text 
and  is  generally  known  as  economics  or  political  econ- 


ECONOMICS  AND  SOCIOLOGY  85 

omy.  In  this  chapter  we  need  consider  only  its  pur- 
pose and  scope  and  the  importance  of  its  study  in  re- 
lation to  human  welfare  and  business  prosperity. 

It  is  the  aim  of  economics  to  explain  the  phenomena 
of  business.  It  sets  forth  the  laws  governing  prices, 
values,  wages,  rent,  interest.  In  other  words,  it  seeks 
to  explain  the  production  and  consumption  of  wealth; 
by  wealth  being  meant  anything  that  has  value  and  is, 
therefore,  marketable. 

Economics  is  the  business  man's  science.  It  is  the 
one  above  all  others  that  he  should  master,  for  it  treats 
of  things  which  are  part  of  his  daily  life.  He  must  be 
familiar  with  the  laws  which  determine  the  prices  at 
which  he  sells  his  goods  and  the  rates  of  wages  which 
he  must  pay  for  labor ;  otherwise  he  works  in  the  dark 
and  will  not  be  able  to  foresee  changes. 

5.  The  reformer. — It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  economist  as  a  man  of  science  is  especially  con- 
cerned about  the  causes  of  existing  phenomena.  He 
looks  for  the  principles  underlying  economic  condi- 
tions and  business  events  of  today.  Having  found 
these  he  may  then  go  further  and  become  an  economic 
or  social  reformer,  showing  how  business  conditions 
might  be  changed  for  the  better.  The  man  who  is 
merely  an  economist  is  not  qualified  to  serve  society 
as  a  reformer.  The  moment  he  proposes  changes  he 
is  invading  the  domain  of  sociology,  for  there  can  be 
no  change  in  our  economic  system  which  does  not  run 
counter  to  custom  and  involve  social  consequences. 

For  example,  free  trade  and  protection  do  not  con- 


86  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

stitute  a  purely  economic  question.  It  is  an  issue  that 
cannot  be  settled  rightly  if  certain  social,  ethical  and 
political  considerations  are  left  out  of  account.  It  is 
quite  possible  that  an  economist  who  had  upheld  the 
economic  advantages  of  free  trade  would,  if  he  as- 
sumed the  responsibilities  of  statesmanship,  become  an 
ardent  protectionist.  He  would,  of  course,  be  ac- 
cused of  inconsistency,  whereas  the  truth  might  be  that 
in  his  position  as  statesman  he  had  discovered  that 
for  his  country  there  existed  in  favor  of  a  protective 
tariff  certain  broad  considerations  which  he  had  not 
taken  into  account  as  an  economist. 

6.  Mercantilists. — It  is  interesting  and  profitable 
to  note  the  influence  of  environment  upon  economic 
thought.  Among  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans 
there  was  no  such  science  as  economics.  No  philoso- 
pher in  those  days  gave  any  thought  to  the  phenomena 
of  what  we  call  business.  The  reason  is  found  in  their 
ideals  and  environment.  They  loved  the  arts,  litera- 
ture, sports,  war.  Slaves  supplied  them  jvith  the 
necessaries,  comforts  and  luxuries  of  life.  Business 
to  them  was  of  small  consequence.  Its  transactions, 
therefore,  received  no  attention  from  philosophers. 
They  did  not  seem  to  deserve  the  notice  of  wise 
men. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  however,  after  the  downfall  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  men  lived  under  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent environment.  The  freemen  of  the  feudal  age 
declined  to  work  in  the  gold  and  silver  mines  of 
Europe,  as  slaves  had  been  compelled  to  do  in  the 


ECONOMICS  AND  SOCIOLOGY  87 

earlier  ages.  Since  the  conquering  legions  of  Rome 
brought  no  more  of  the  precious  metals  into  Europe, 
and  as  the  church  absorbed  large  quantities  of  them 
for  the  purposes  of  ornamentation,  they  became  grad- 
ually scarcer  and  scarcer  during  the  Middle  Ages  and 
greatly  increased  in  value.  Rulers  found  it  difficult 
to  keep  within  their  kingdoms  an  adequate  supply  of 
the  precious  metals  and  numerous  laws  were  passed 
for  the  prevention  of  their  export,  it  being  often  made 
a  capital  offense. 

As  a  result  of  this  condition  men  got  into  the  habit 
of  thinking  of  gold  and  silver  as  being  the  most  im- 
portant commodities  in  the  world,  and  toward  the  end 
of  the  Middle  Ages  publicists  and  scholars  began  to 
write  books  and  pamphlets  on  the  subject,  their  gen- 
eral aim  being  to  show  how  a  nation  or  a  city  might 
best  increase  and  conserve  its  store  of  the  precious 
metals.  There  grew  up  an  overwhelming  sentiment 
in  favor  of  a  tariff  on  imports.  A  nation's  exports 
should  be  large  and  its  imports  small  in  order  that 
there  might  be  a  so-called  "favorable"  balance  of  trade 
which  must  be  paid  in  gold  or  silver.  These  first  pro- 
tectionists, it  should  be  noted,  had  not  in  mind  the 
building  up  of  home  industries,  but  the  enlargement 
of  their  country's  stock  of  precious  metals.  They 
were  not  known  at  the  time  as  economists,  but  histori- 
ans now  group  them  together  as  the  first  school  of 
political  economy  and  call  them  the  "Mercantilists" 
because  of  their  faith  in  the  value  of  trade. 

7.  Physiocrats. — In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 


88  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

centuries,  as  a  result  of  the  inflow  of  gold  and  silver 
from  America,  these  metals  greatly  declined  in  value, 
causing  a  great  rise  of  prices  in  Europe.  Adam 
Smith  in  his  "Wealth  of  Nations"  estimates  that  the 
general  level  of  prices  rose  some  three  hundred  per 
cent  during  the  seventeenth  century.  Since  many 
wages  and  salaries  did  not  rise  in  proportion  and  since 
the  purchasing  power  of  annuities  and  pensions  had 
declined,  there  was  great  suffering  in  Europe  among 
many  different  classes.  No  longer  were  gold  and 
silver  regarded  as  the  most  important  commodities. 
These  metals  existed  in  abundance,  yet  there  was 
great  misery  and  discontent. 

This  condition  had  its  effect  upon  economic  thought 
and  produced  a  group  of  writers,  most  of  them  living 
in  France,  who  took  issue  with  the  conclusions  of  the 
Mercantilists  and  argued  that  agriculture,  not  trade, 
was  the  important  pursuit  of  man.  The  source  of 
wealth,  they  held,  lay  in  Mother  Earth,  and  a  nation 
which  sought  to  increase  its  wealth  must  encourage 
its  people  to  till  the  soil  and  develop  its  natural  re- 
sources. Historians  called  this  group  of  writers 
"Physiocrats"  (from  two  Greek  words  physis,  na- 
ture, hratein,  to  rule) . 

8.  English  Classical  School. — The  next  change  in 
the  character  of  economic  thinking  was  brought  about 
by  Adam  Smith,  a  Scotch  professor  of  natural  phi- 
losophy. In  "The  Wealth  of  Nations,"  published  in 
1776,  he  exposed  the  crude  fallacies  of  the  Mercantil- 
ists and  pointed  out  the  economic  advantages  of  com- 


ECONOMICS  AND  SOCIOLOGY  89 

petition  and  free  trade,  combating  the  Physiocratic 
doctrines  in  favor  of  governmental  interference  with 
trade  and  industry. 

The  keynote  of  his  book  is  found  in  the  phrase 
"laissez  faire,"  let  things  alone,  let  not  the  law  inter- 
fere with  the  business  man,  let  competition  bring  the 
best  man  to  the  top.  The  people  of  each  country 
should  devote  themselves  to  those  pursuits  for  which 
it  and  they  are  best  fitted.  Adam  Smith's  book  made 
a  sensation  in  Europe  and  was  the  Bible  of  English 
economists  for  one  hundred  years.  The  last  great 
expounder  and  advocate  of  its  principles  was  John 
Stuart  Mill,  an  English  philosopher  who  published  a 
treatise  on  political  economy  about  1845.  The  Eng- 
lish economists  who  followed  Adam  Smith  are  gener- 
ally recognized  as  the  ablest  group  of  men  who  have 
written  upon  the  science  and  are  now  generally  re- 
ferred to  as  the  English  Classical  School  of  political 
economy. 

The  English  economists  have  been  criticized  as  re- 
lying too  much  on  the  mode  of  reasoning  known  as 
deductive  or  a  priori,  or  as  being  pure  theorists  who 
knew  little  about  the  facts  of  business.  Modern 
economists,  while  recognizing  the  value  of  the  deduc- 
tive method,  are  seeking  to  make  political  economy 
the  science  of  business  as  actually  done  today.  In- 
stead of  reasoning  as  to  how  business  men  would  be- 
have under  certain  hypothetical  conditions,  they  are 
studying  the  conditions  and  problems  which  do 
actually  confront  the  business  man  in  his  office. 


90  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

9.  Significance  of  human  wants. — All  the  actions 
of  men  are  prompted  by  their  wants  or  desires.  If  the 
wants  of  the  people  are  few,  their  activities  will  be 
few  and  their  lives  simple  and  comparatively  easy  to 
understand.  As  their  wants  increase  in  number  their 
activities  become  more  complex  and  more  difficult  of 
comprehension. 

The  psychologist  studies  the  peculiarities  of  wants 
as  manifested  in  the  individual  and  draws  conclusions 
which  are  of  interest  to  both  the  economist  and  the 
sociologist.  He  learns,  for  example,  that  there  is 
practically  no  limit  to  the  wants  of  which  an  ordinary 
human  being  is  capable,  a  man  in  this  respect  being 
entirely  different  from  the  beasts.  Second,  he  finds 
that  the  wants  of  different  men  differ  greatly,  one 
caring  nothing  at  all  for  what  another  wants  very 
much.  Third,  he  learns  that  a  man's  desire  for  any- 
thing tends  to  decrease  somewhat  in  proportion  to  the 
abundance  of  it  in  his  possession ;  that  a  man,  for  ex- 
ample, who  has  three  fountain  pens  will  not  worry 
much  if  he  loses  one,  for  he  does  not  want  nor  need  it. 

To  the  economist  and  to  the  business  man  since  they 
are  especially  concerned  about  the  production  and 
sale  of  commodities,  these  three  peculiarities  of  human 
wants  are  of  great  interest.  The  fact  that  human 
wants  are  capable  of  indefinite  increase  in  number  re- 
veals the  almost  infinite  possibilities  of  business  and 
industry.  It  stimulates  the  imagination  of  the  in- 
ventor and  gives  incentive  to  the  enterprising  manu- 
facturer and  merchant,  who  have  confidence  in  their 


ECONOMICS  AND  SOCIOLOGY  91 

ability  to  market  new  qualities  or  new  kinds  of  goods. 
The  fact  that  a  want  lessens  in  intensity  when  grati- 
fied, finally  reaching  the  point  of  satiety,  is  found  by 
the  economist  to  be  the  psychological  basis  of  the  well- 
known  law  of  demand  and  supply,  as  is  explained  in 
Volume  2  of  the  Modern  Business  Texts. 

When  a  business  man  understands  these  peculiari- 
ties of  human  wants,  he  gets  a  new  idea  of  the  real 
meaning  of  overproduction.  A  particular  industry 
may  turn  out  more  goods  than  people  want  at 
the  price  which  covers  their  cost  of  production,  but 
men  will  never  produce  goods  in  excess  of  human 
wants  if  production  is  properly  adjusted  to  the  variety 
of  those  wants.  An  overproduction  of  shoes  is  tanta- 
mount to  the  underproduction  of  certain  other  things. 

10.  Sociology  and  consumption. — The  sociologist 
is  more  interested  in  the  consumption  of  wealth  than 
in  its  production,  for  social  institutions  and  customs 
depend  very  much  on  the  way  people  spend  their 
money;  on  the  number  and  character  of  wants  they 
gratify.  The  moralist  regards  money  as  the  root  of 
all  evil;  the  economist  thinks  of  it  as  the  end  and  aim 
of  business ;  the  sociologist  regards  it  as  the  source  of 
all  that  is  good  in  material  civilization.  The  sociolo- 
gist sees  in  the  human  desire  for  wealth  one  of  the 
principal  springs  to  human  action.  He  has  learned 
from  the  study  of  various  peoples  that  those  who 
want  little  do  little  and  are  anemic  and  inefficient. 

The  "wantlessness  of  the  poor"  is  well  known  to 
every  social  worker.     Give  the  poor  man  new  wants, 

1—8 


98  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

says  the  sociologist,  and  you  will  give  him  ambition 
that  will  lift  him  out  of  poverty.  Life  indeed  would 
be  simpler  if  we  could  all  model  ourselves  after  Di- 
ogenes, that  old  Greek  philosopher,  to  whom  Alex- 
ander, the  world  conqueror,  offered  to  grant  any 
favor  he  might  ask.  "Please  stand  out  of  the  sun" 
was  all  that  Diogenes  wanted  him  to  do.  It  is  re- 
ported of  Diogenes  that  he  lived  in  a  tub  and  that  he 
aimed  to  reduce  his  wants  to  a  minimum,  having,  for 
example,  thrown  away  his  wooden  cup  when  he 
chanced  to  see  somebody  else  drinking  out  of  the  palm 
of  his  hand.  If  human  beings  were  all  like  Diogenes 
the  problems  of  sociology  and  economics  would  not 
exist,  nor  any  of  the  remarkable  institutions  of  mod- 
ern society.  "Every  want,"  said  Daniel  Webster, 
"not  a  low  one,  physical  as  well  as  moral,  which  the 
human  heart  feels  that  brutes  cannot  do  or  feel,  raises 
man  by  so  much  in  the  scale  of  existence." 

Social  and  industrial  progress  is  impossible  in  any 
community  or  country  where  the  natural  wants  of 
men  are  stifled  in  their  development.  In  India,  under 
the  influence  of  the  doctrines  of  Brahma  the  people 
were  divided  into  castes,  a  system  which,  tho  consid- 
erably modified,  still  exists.  In  the  artificial  social 
system  thus  created  men  had  no  hope  of  rising  from 
one  caste  to  a  higher;  each  had  to  be  satisfied  with  the 
state  in  which  he  found  himself.  Under  such  condi- 
tions the  development  of  a  fine  civilization  was  impos- 
sible. 

Sociologists  are  interested  in  the  consumption  of 


ECONOMICS  AND  SOCIOLOGY  93 

wealth  because  of  the  bearing  it  has  on  social  welfare. 
Take,  for  example,  the  drinking  of  alcohol.  To  the 
economist,  alcoholic  beverages  constitute  wealth  quite 
as  much  as  wool,  leather,  or  gold.  He  is  interested 
in  its  cost  of  production  and  in  its  price,  in  the  de- 
mand for  it  and  supply  of  it.  And  all  these  matters 
are  of  interest  to  the  business  man.  The  sociologist 
is  especially  concerned  about  the  effect  which  the  con- 
sumption of  liquor  has  upon  a  community.  He  finds 
that  excessive  consumption  of  it  tends  to  fill  the  jails 
and  almshouses  and  lessen  the  productive  powers  of 
the  community.  Hence  he  says  to  the  business  man, 
"If  you  wish  to  protect  business  from  harm  and  con- 
serve the  buying  power  of  the  people  on  whom  you 
depend,  you  must  regulate  this  industry." 

In  the  United  States  it  is  easier  to  earn  money  than 
it  is  to  spend  it  wisely.  The  right  consumption  of 
wealth,  the  proper  coordination  of  our  wants  and  their 
satisfactions,  are  matters  upon  which  the  welfare  of 
society  depends.  Thus  far  science  has  given  too  little 
attention  to  the  problems  involved  in  the  consumption 
of  wealth.  They  concern  business  men  quite  as  much 
as  they  do  economists  and  sociologists. 

11.  Poverty  and  incompetence. — The  economist  is 
interested  in  the  cause  of  poverty  and  he  finds  it  as 
a  rule  in  the  inefficiency  of  the  poor,  in  their  lack  of 
productive  power,  in  their  ignorance,  in  their  inability 
or  unwillingness  to  perform  any  valuable  service  for 
society.  The  sociologist  thinks  most  of  the  social 
institutions  made  necessary  by  the  poor.     He   dis- 


04  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

covers  among  paupers  great  numbers  of  defectives, 
delinquents  and  criminals,  and  puzzles  over  the  prob- 
lem of  their  treatment.  In  a  properly  organized 
society  there  should  be  no  defectives,  delinquents  or 
paupers;  the  ultimate  aim  of  both  economics  and 
sociology  is  their  elimination.  They  are  consumers 
of  wealth,  but  not  producers.  They  are  a  drag  upon 
business.  Here  is  a  task  which  the  conscientious 
business  man  must  not  shirk.  He  must  endeavor 
gradually  to  bring  about  such  a  reconstruction  of  so- 
ciety that  poverty  and  its  attendant  evils  shall  not 
exist,  and  in  this  work  he  must  look  for  aid  and  guid- 
ance to  the  sociologist  as  well  as  to  the  economist. 

It  is  easy  to  make  mistakes  in  our  treatment  of  the 
socially  unfit.  A  good  illustration  is  furnished  by  the 
prejudice  that  prevails  with  regard  to  the  products  of 
convict  labor.  It  is  admitted  that  the  inmates  of 
penitentiaries  ought  to  be  made  to  work,  but  the  prod- 
ucts of  their  labor,  it  is  held,  should  not  be  sold  in 
the  general  markets,  for  that  would  lessen  the  de- 
mand for  honest  labor.  This  prejudice  is  economi- 
cally unsound.  The  production  of  goods  by  con- 
victs, if  encouraged  and  wisely  directed,  would  be 
beneficial  from  every  point  of  view;  it  would  not 
lessen  the  earnings  of  honest  laboring  men  by  a  dollar. 

12.  National  efficiency. — Few  business  men  realize 
how  much  of  their  prosperity  they  owe  to  certain  social 
conditions  and  institutions  which  seem  to  have  no 
relation  whatever  to  business.  Conspicuous  among 
such  institutions  are  the  school  and  the  church.     The 


ECONOMICS  AND  SOCIOLOGY  95 

one  makes  for  intelligence,  the  other  for  honesty  and 
clean  living.  Without  their  influence  no  nation  could 
realize  any  high  ideal  of  efficiency.  Least  of  all  can 
the  discipline  and  training  of  the  family  life  be  over- 
looked. Whatever  makes  for  solidity  and  strength  of 
character  contributes  to  the  business  success  of  a 
people. 

In  a  country  lacking  a  system  of  general  education, 
or  of  moral  training  such  as  it  is  the  aim  of  the  church 
to  give,  business  men  would  be  seriously  handicapped 
by  the  poor  and  untrustworthy  quality  of  their  em- 
ployes. A  great  executive  can  accomplish  little  if  he 
is  surrounded  by  men  who  do  not  understand  his  plans. 
He  needs  wise  subordinates  upon  whom  he  can  depend 
just  as  a  great  general  needs  good  soldiers. 

Self-interest  as  well  as  patriotism  demands,  there- 
fore, that  the  business  man  help  to  foster  all  social 
institutions  which  increase  the  efficiency  and 
strengthen  the  character  of  the  average  citizen. 
Upon  that  efficiency  and  character  the  continuance 
and  growth  of  a  nation's  material  prosperity  abso- 
lutely depend,  and  that  is  a  matter  of  vital  concern 
to  every  business  man.  As  Mr.  Vanderlip  has  elo- 
quently said  in  a  recent  address : 

There  are  times  in  the  world  which  call  men  away  from 
their  personal  and  immediate  interests.  There  are  periods 
that  compel  them  to  think  together  of  fundamental  things. 
Surely  the  present  is  such  a  time.  It  seems  almost  idle  to 
discuss  the  working  of  banking  statutes  when  we  can  discern, 
even  tho  dimly,  the  working  of  great  laws  in  the  statute 
book  of  human  nature  and  society,  whose  action  is  so  funda- 


96  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

mental  and  important  as  to  make  our  men-made  laws  and 
their  workings  seem  inconsequential  in  comparison.  We  are 
in  a  time  when  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  we  think 
socially  and  fundamentally.  These  are  not  days  when  we 
can  give  our  thoughts  exclusively  to  our  business,  to  our  im- 
mediate affairs.  They  are  days  that  demand  that  we  think 
nationally  and  internationally  rather  than  individually  or 
as  a  business  class.  We  are  confronted  by  an  insistent  need 
for  comprehending  fundamentals. 

13.  Inflexibility  of  custom. — It  is  of  practical  im- 
portance that  business  men  know  enough  about  soci- 
ology to  understand  the  rigidity  and  inflexibility  of 
custom.  When  a  people  once  get  into  the  habit  of 
doing  a  certain  thing  in  a  certain  way,  the  business 
man  who  runs  counter  to  that  custom  will  get  into 
trouble.  As  we  all  know,  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to 
correct  a  bad  personal  habit,  it  seems  part  of  our 
nature.  But  customs  are  changed  with  much  greater 
difficult)7-  than  habits.  They  are  reenforced  personal 
habits.  Each  individual  member  of  a  community 
clings  to  an  old  custom  with  tenacity  not  only  for  the 
reason  that  it  is  a  habit  with  him,  but  also  because  it 
has  the  complete  approval  of  his  associates.  The  cus- 
tom may  be  absurd,  illogical,  uneconomic,  but  you  can- 
not uproot  it  merely  by  exposing  its  absurdity  and 
wastefulness.  It  will  yield  to  change  very  gradually, 
and  for  a  time  those  who  make  improvements  will  be 
sneered  at  as  queer,  not  practical. 

The  American  people,  for  example,  have  long  railed 
at  the  custom  of  tipping  the  Pullman  car  porter,  but 
only  women  are  brave  enough  to  violate  the  custom. 


ECONOMICS  AND  SOCIOLOGY  97 

New  Yorkers  write  letters  to  the  newspapers  con- 
demning the  custom  requiring  the  checking  of  coats 
and  hats  at  restaurants,  but  if  they  dine  at  a  restau- 
rant the  next  day  they  meekly  hand  the  hat-boy  his 
tip. 

The  law  itself  is  often  powerless  to  change  a  busi- 
ness custom.  The  new  Federal  Reserve  Banking 
Law  which  is  described  in  the  Modern  Business  Text 
on  "Banking"  was  designed  to  bring  about  a  change  in 
certain  credit  customs  in  the  United  States.  In 
Europe  buyers  of  goods  get  credit  by  means  of  what 
is  called  the  bill  of  exchange,  a  credit  instrument  much 
more  useful  and  flexible  than  the  promissory  note 
which  is  in  common  use  in  the  United  States,  but  the 
bill  of  exchange  is  the  product  of  a  custom  new  in  the 
United  States ;  it  is  the  result  of  the  creditor  drawing 
on  the  debtor,  the  latter  accepting  the  draft.  It  re- 
mains to  be  seen  whether  the  business  men  of  the 
United  States  will  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity 
offered  by  the  new  law  and  adopt  this  European 
custom. 

Custom  owes  its  inflexibility  largely  to  the  human 
passion  for  imitation.  In  this  respect  man  can  cer- 
tainly claim  some  kinship  to  the  ape.  Our  imitation 
of  others  is  sometimes  the  result  of  our  desire  for  their 
approbation,  but  usually  it  is  unconscious  and  in- 
stinctive, and  it  takes  more  than  a  sermon  or  a  lecture 
to  convince  a  man  that  his  subordinance  to  any  foolish 
custom  is  evidence  of  weakness.  The  business  man 
must  bear  in  mind  that  the  customs  of  a  country  or  of 


98  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

a  community  are  part  of  its  second  nature.  He  must 
not  ignore  or  ridicule  them,  and  if  he  seeks  to  eradicate 
them  he  must  he  content  with  slow  progress. 

REVIEW 

Distinguish  between  sociology  and  economics. 

What  are  the  underlying  reasons  for  the  prominence  given 
certain  doctrines  by  the  Mercantilist,  Physiocratic,  and  Classical 
Schools  of  economists? 

What  concern  has  the  business  man  with  such  questions  as  the 
temperance  movement,  the  juvenile  court,  prison  labor,  tenement 
dwellings  and  the  like? 

Name  some  cases  in  which  social  custom  affects  men's  ways 
of  doing  business. 

Will  business  find  it  more  profitable  to  seek  to  change  custom, 
or  to  adapt  itself  to  custom? 


CHAPTER  IV 

PSYCHOLOGY 

1.  The  human  equation. — Psychology  aims  to  ex- 
plain our  states  of  mind  or  consciousness — our  sensa- 
tions, emotions,  desires,  ideas,  volitions,  etc.  Psychol- 
ogy is  a  natural  science,  involving  the  study  of  the 
body  as  well  as  of  our  mental  states.  Every  state  of 
consciousness  is  the  reflex  of  some  physical  activity  in 
the  brain  or  nervous  system  and  is  usually  followed  by 
bodily  activity  of  some  kind. 

Since  business  is  essentially  cooperative  in  its  na- 
ture, a  man's  mind  being  constantly  brought  into  con- 
tact with  the  minds  of  others,  a  business  man  uncon- 
sciously becomes  a  psychologist,  but  not  always  a  good 
one.  It  is  worth  our  while,  therefore,  to  give  a  little 
systematic  thought  to  this  interesting  science.  The 
manager  must  consider  the  worker  as  well  as  the  work ; 
the  advertiser  must  know  human  motives  as  well  as 
type  faces ;  in  short,  the  business  man  must  recognize 
the  human  equation,  must  study  how  to  solve  it. 

2.  Nervous  system. — The  many  formidable  the- 
ories about  the  mind  with  their  fine  spun  distinctions, 
have  often  left  men  impatient  with  psychology.  But 
the  essential  principles  are  simple  and  easily  put  into 
practice.     Let  us  sweep  away  whatever  fantastic  or 

99 


100  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

metaphysical  notions  we  may  have  about  the  thought 
world  and  focus  our  attention  upon  the  nervous 
.system. 

The  nervous  system  consists  of  four  parts — cere- 
brum, cerebellum,  medulla  oblongata,  and  nerves — all 
intimately  bound  together,  yet  each  with  its  distinctive 
functions.  As  the  reader  studies  these  functions  the 
similarity  between  the  nervous  system  and  a  business 
organization  cannot  fail  to  impress  him. 

3.  Nerve  ganglia. — The  nerves  thru  the  organs  of 
sight,  taste,  smell,  feeling  and  hearing,  receive  the  first 
impressions,  or  sensations  as  they  are  called,  from  the 
outside.  These  nerves  may  be  compared  to  the  tele- 
phone and  telegraph  wires,  the  railroads  and  the  mails 
which  keep  a  business  organization  in  touch  with  its 
markets.  But  some  of  these  impressions  or  sensations 
do  not  travel  very  far  along  the  nerves  toward  head- 
quarters before  they  meet  a  little  nerve  knot,  or  gan- 
glion, which  passes  upon  their  message.  If  it  is  of 
routine  sort  merely,  the  ganglion  decides  the  matter 
itself,  just  as  an  office  boy  might  under  similar  cir- 
cumstances. A  message  of  higher  sort  gets  on  by  the 
ganglion  and  quickly  reaches  the  medulla  oblongata. 

4.  Medulla  oblongata. — The  medulla  oblongata 
rests  at  the  top  of  the  spinal  cord,  as  a  sort  of  clearing 
house  for  automatic  and  semi-automatic  actions. 
While  it  is  of  higher  rank  than  the  myriad  ganglia,  its 
functions  are  very  much  the  same. 

The  medulla  might  be  called  the  chief  of  the  routine 
department.     Certain  messages  and  orders  are  too 


PSYCHOLOGY  101 

important  for  it  to  dispatch,  of  course,  and  these  are 
passed  on  to  the  cerebellum. 

5.  Cerebellum. — The  cerebellum  is  the  "little 
brain"  lying  just  above  the  medulla,  yet  still  far  back 
and  low  in  the  brain  case  or  skull.  It  has  charge  of 
the  voluntary  muscles,  that  is,  over  those  which  oper- 
ate under  the  direction  of  our  will.  The  beating  of 
the  heart  goes  on  whether  we  think  of  it  or  not,  but 
were  we  to  draw  a  caricature  of  a  friend,  the  cere- 
bellum would  direct  the  muscles.  In  general,  the 
cerebellum  might  be  called  the  seat  of  the  action  de- 
partment. 

6.  Cerebrum. — The  cerebrum  crowns  the  nervous 
system  both  in  size  and  function.  Practically  the  en- 
tire brain  case  is  filled  by  it.  Just  as  the  most  impor- 
tant messages  and  orders  come  finally  to  the  general 
manager,  the  main  business  of  the  mind,  its  general 
policies,  so  to  speak,  are  here  transacted. 

7.  Habits,  good  and  bad. — These  four  parts  of  the 
nervous  system  are  composed  of  tiny,  plastic  cells, 
striking  one  another  and  rebounding  as  a  message 
flies  from  cell  to  cell.  The  first  time  the  message  is 
sent,  as,  for  instance,  walking  down  the  stairs  of  our 
new  home  to  the  dinner  table,  so  great  is  the  difficulty 
encountered  that  the  general  manager  himself  must 
take  a  hand  in  directing  the  muscles,  and  even  at  that 
we  may  perchance  stumble  at  the  last  stair.  15i.it  the 
brain  cells  under  repetition  shape  themselves  into  a 
less  and  less  plastic  order,  until  finally  a  habit  is 
formed.     The  clock  points  to  seven-thirty,  the  cere- 


102  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

helium  incites  the  medulla  to  effort  and  aided  by  the 
ganglia,  we  reach  the  table  with  the  general  manager 
(the  cerebrum)  still  undisturbed,  putting  the  finish- 
ing touches  on  "what  to  do  tomorrow."  Evidently, 
there  may  be  good  as  well  as  bad  habits. 

Every  useful  action  possible,  such  as  ways  of  dress- 
ing, eating,  working,  in  short  all  the  details  of  exist- 
ence, should  be  made  automatic  and  habitual.  They 
can  then  be  turned  over  to  the  lower  nervous  centers 
for  attention,  leaving  the  general  manager  unfettered 
to  transact  the  real  business  of  life.  The  nervous 
system  is  designed  for  this  very  purpose  and  the  man 
who  would  be  efficient  takes  advantage  of  its  wonder- 
fully simple  yet  adequate  organization. 

8.  Operating  the  mental  machine. — The  business 
man  would  have  the  men  who  buy  from  him  or  work 
for  him,  as  responsive  to  his  touch  as  a  motor  car  or  a 
locomotive  under  the  engineer's  hand.  To  a  certain 
extent  this  is  entirely  possible.  .  The  average  man  has 
plenty  of  energy  within  him  which  awaits  the  call  of 
the  man  able  to  release  it — brain  cells  and  muscle  cells 
in  unstable  equilibrium  are  like  powder  awaiting  the 
match. 

To  appreciate  what  possibilities  here  await  the  man 
able  to  operate  mental  machinery,  one  need  only  con- 
sider that  galvanic  power  applied  to  the  nerve  of  a 
frog's  leg  produces  energy  70,000  times  greater  than 
the  original  stimulus. 

The  procedure  itself  is  pretty  well  comprehended 
in  three  words,  motive,  appeal  and  response.     By  mo- 


PSYCHOLOGY  103 

tive  is  meant  that  which  impels  men  to  act ;  as,  for  ex- 
ample, when  the  desire  for  a  home  or  for  clothing  and 
food  impels  the  workman  to  lay  bricks.  Appeal  is  the 
means  by  which  a  motive  may  effectively  be  incited. 
If,  for  example,  the  manager  wants  to  arouse  a  par- 
ticular motive,  such  as  curiosity  or  gratitude,  he  makes 
an  appeal,  that  is,  he  invites,  or  argues,  etc.  By  re- 
sponse is  meant  the  reaction  on  the  part  of  the  other 
person,  whether  favorable  or  unfavorable,  to  the  ap- 
peal which  has  been  made  to  him. 

9.  Appeals  to  the  instincts. — Classified  broadly, 
appeals  are  directed  either  to  the  reason  or  to  the  in- 
stincts. The  instinctive  appeal  is  addressed  to  the 
lower  parts  of  the  brain,  those  which  control  our 
habits  and  all  our  routine  conduct.  If  a  man  is 
hungry  and  food  is  placed  before  him,  he  instinctively 
seizes  a  knife  and  fork.  In  the  presence  of  danger  a 
man  instinctively  seeks  a  place  of  security.  It  is  a 
human  instinct  to  protect  one's  wife,  children  and 
friends  from  harm.  It  is  instinctive,  also,  to  continue 
doing  whatever  one  has  been  accustomed  to  do. 

Many  of  life's  most  important  customs  are  instinc- 
tive and  non-rational.  A  man  who  seeks  to  make  us 
act  counter  to  these  instincts  has  a  difficult  task.  If 
he  wishes  to  win  us,  he  must  by  all  means  be  careful 
not  to  begin  by  rousing  instincts  which  are  hostile  to 
his  desire.  If  an  art  critic  should  be  tactless  enough 
to  mention  the  physical  blemishes  of  a  friend's  sweet- 
heart or  mother,  his  friend  would  not  be  at  all  con- 
vinced.    Possibly  "Old  Glory"  is  not  the  most  artistic 


104.  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

national  Hag  in  existence,  but  every  real  American 
believes  it  is  and  does  not  care  to  reason  about  it. 

"You  want  a  tie  to  match  this  new  coat,"  suggests 
the  salesman  with  conviction,  and  our  lower  brain 
centers,  habit-bound  and  greedy,  urge  us  over  toward 
the  stock  of  neckwear. 

The  appeal  to  instinct  is  sometimes  called  the  hu- 
man interest  appeal.  Sometimes  it  is  known  as  "sug- 
gestion/' Men  are  sometimes  persuaded  to  act  with- 
out the  slightest  suspicion  that  they  are  not  acting 
entirely  upon  their  own  initiative.  Instinctively  we 
love  the  approbation  of  others;  so  almost  uncon- 
sciously we  become  imitators  and  seek  to  mend  our 
manners  and  improve  our  speech  when  we  are  with 
people  whose  training  and  environment  have  been 
finer  than  ours. 

10.  Making  use  of  reason. — Reason  is  the  com- 
mander-in-chief of  our  mental  forces  and  may  at  any 
time  countermand  the  orders  issued  by  the  instincts. 
When  the  price  of  a  new  necktie  is  telegraphed  to  the 
brain,  the  reason  may  take  note  of  it  and  thwart  the 
salesman's  appeal  to  instinct  unless  he  is  able  to  prove 
that  the  high  price  is  abundantly  justified. 

Occasions  often  arise  when  the  reason  appeal  alone 
can  be  used ;  for  example  if  a  concern  wishes  to  estab- 
lish a  line  of  credit  at  a  bank,  it  must  convince  the 
banker  of  the  value  of  its  assets  and  of  the  certainty  of 
its  income.  Banks  do  not  loan  money  on  sentiment. 
On  the  contrary,  a  banker  is  instinctively  suspicious 
when  a  man  applies  for  a  loan  on  the  ground  of 


PSYCHOLOGY  105 

friendship  or  because  they  are  members  of  the  same 
church  or  secret  society. 

Frequently  the  instinct  and  reason  appeal  can  be 
made  to  work  together  to  the  same  end.  Dealers  in" 
farms  and  country  estates  understand  this  fact  and 
make  skilful  use  of  both  appeals  in  their  advertise- 
ments. They  picture  what  seems  to  be  an  ideal 
country  home  which  is  to  be  sold  at  a  most  reasonable 
price,  because  the  owner  is  a  recent  widow  and  is  com- 
pelled to  sell.  When  a  would-be  buyer  rushes  out 
eagerly  to  snap  up  the  bargain,  he  is  usually  disap- 
pointed. The  advertisement  may  have  told  nothing 
untrue,  yet  it  did  not  tell  all  the  truth ;  it  was  designed 
to  arouse  his  instinct  for  a  country  home. 

11.  Choice  of  appeals. — When  should  we  use  the 
appeal  to  reason  and  when  the  appeal  to  instinct? 
We  cannot  answer  that  question  unless  we  know  the 
kind  of  person  with  whom  we  are  dealing  and  just 
what  we  want  him  to  do. 

Furthermore,  is  the  transaction  one  that  requires 
mental  analysis  and  deliberation?  A  man  who  is 
placing  on  the  market  a  new  article,  one  satisfying  a 
want  hitherto  unsatisfied,  must  appeal  to  the  reason 
of  people.  He  must  make  it  clear  that  his  article  will 
give  satisfaction  or  relieve  them  of  much  discomfort 
which  they  in  the  past  have  been  obliged  to  endure. 
If  he  is  offering  a  new  office  appliance  for  $100  which 
will  do  the  work  of  two  clerks  whose  wages  are  at  least 
eight  dollars  a  week,  he  should  use  pencil  and  paper 
and  absolutely  convince  the  judgment  of  the  pros- 


106  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

jKvtive  buyer,  but  if  he  is  offering  something  which 
co i Kerns  the  comforts  of  home  or  the  health  and  well- 
being  of  children,  he  will  find  the  instinctive  appeal 
most  effective. 

Most  business  men  underestimate  the  value  and  im- 
portance of  the  instinctive  appeal.  In  the  upbuild- 
ing of  an  efficient  business  organization,  one  full  of 
"ginger,"  loyalty  and  enthusiasm,  the  instinctive  ap- 
peal is  worth  a  hundred  times  more  than  any  cold 
calculation  with  regard  to  the  grading  of  salaries. 
Many  houses  give  prizes  each  month  to  those  em- 
ployes who  make  the  best  suggestions  for  the  improve- 
ment of  their  business.  To  the  employe  the  honor 
of  winning  the  prize  is  of  much  more  consequence  than 
the  number  of  dollars. 

12.  Suiting  appeal  to  person. — A  good  salesman 
unconsciously  considers  the  character  of  the  person  he 
is  addressing.  Is  he  reserved,  self-centered,  his  eyes 
partly  closed,  his  face  showing  hard  lines,  his  lower 
jaw  prominent  and  firm?  Then  the  wise  salesman 
gets  down  to  business  at  once,  cracking  no  jokes  and 
attempting  no  familiarities.  When  dealing  with  a 
man  who  has  a  habit  of  insisting  upon  evidence  of 
merit,  that  habit  must  be  respected.  His  reason  must 
be  convinced. 

However,  people  who  are  controlled  entirely  by 
reason  are  the  exceptions  in  this  world.  Reasoning 
is  work  which  most  men  like  to  avoid.  To  be  sure, 
men  like  to  be  told  that  they  are  reasonable. 
That  bit  of  flattery  puts  them  in  a  comfortable  state 


PSYCHOLOGY  107 

of  mind,  in  which  they  the  more  easily  surrender  to 
an  instinctive  appeal.  Men  are  a  good  deal  like  chil- 
dren— bundles  of  habits  and  instincts.  Appeal  to  their 
reason  often  leaves  them  unmoved,  while  a  subtle  ap- 
peal to  their  emotions,  prejudices  or  ambitions  often 
drives  them  into  conduct  utterly  irrational. 

13.  Traits  in  common. — It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind 
that  men  resemble  one  another  more  in  their  instincts 
than  in  their  reason.  People  living  in  the  same  en- 
vironment naturally  fall  into  the  same  habits  and  cus- 
toms and  acquire  common  views  on  many  subjects, 
but  in  intellectual  power  the  individuals  of  a  com- 
munity differ  greatly. 

At  a  theater  the  downfall  of  the  villain  and  the 
rescue  of  the  heroine  get  equal  applause  from  the 
boxes  and  the  gallery,  but  at  a  lecture  on  some  ab- 
stract topic  there  is  no  applause  because  there  is  no 
common  response ;  perhaps  only  a  few  of  the  audience 
understand  and  appreciate  all  that  is  said,  and  it  may 
be  that  not  a  single  hearer  is  in  agreement  with  all  the 
speaker's  arguments. 

A  man  who  would  appeal  to  all  sorts  and  condi- 
tions of  men  must  stir  their  common  instincts  and 
emotions.  This  fact  is  well  understood  by  dema- 
gogues and  successful  stump  speakers  in  political 
campaigns. 

14.  One's  own  personalit?/. — A  man  must  take  into 
account  his  own  personality  in  deciding  upon  the  char- 
acter of  appeal  he  shall  make.  Personality  is  such 
an  important  matter  that  I  have  deemed  it  worthy  of 

1—9 


108  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

a  chapter  in  this  book.  A  man  of  unattractive  per- 
sonality can  often  accomplish  more  by  writing  a  letter 
than  by  a  personal  visit.  Other  men  have  such  a 
compelling  personality  that  they  win  us  almost  in 
spite  of  ourselves.  Said  the  rough  General  Van- 
damme  of  Napoleon : 

That  devil  of  a  man  exercises  a  fascination  over  me  I 
cannot  explain  even  to  myself,  and  in  such  a  degree  that, 
tho  I  fear  neither  God  nor  devil,  when  I  am  in  his  pres- 
ence, I  am  ready  to  tremble  like  a  child  and  he  could  make 
me  go  thru  the  eye  of  a  needle  or  throw  myself  into  a  fire. 

A  timid,  sensitive  man  should  not  attempt  to  domi- 
nate others  or  to  control  them  thru  fear;  he  can  win 
others  over  to  his  policy  only  thru  patient  and  tactful 
suggestion.  Some  successful  managers  are  as  silent 
as  the  sphinx,  their  immobile  faces  arousing  fear  as 
well  as  curiosity.  Others  are  genial  and  friendly, 
winning  the  hearts  of  their  employes.  Still  others 
reason  everything  out  with  great  care  and  accuracy 
and  delight  in  graphic  charts  for  the  instruction  of 
their  men.  It  is  certainly  wise  for  a  man  to  know  the 
type  of  his  personality  and  to  direct  his  conduct  in 
conformity  with  it. 

15.  A j) peal  in  relation  to  action. — While  the  in- 
stincts and  the  reason  both  impel  us  to  action,  it  is  im- 
portant to  note  that  the  instincts  are  much  the  swifter 
in  action.  It  takes  time  to  analyze  a  proposition,  to 
scrutinize  arguments  and  to  weigh  facts  and  condi- 
tions to  the  satisfaction  of  the  reason.  Hence  if  im- 
mediate action  is  wanted,  the  instincts  must  be  ap- 


PSYCHOLOGY  109 

pealed  to.  Religious  revivals,  financial  panics,  foot- 
ball games,  lynching  mobs,  all  show  how  the  conta- 
gious instinctive  appeal  is  able  to  make  them  outdo 
themselves  in  acts,  both  good  and  bad. 

But  the  effects  of  the  instinctive  appeal  are  not  al- 
ways lasting,  for  they  not  always  stand  the  test  of 
reason.  Reason  works  slowly  and  painfully,  but  it 
carries  a  man  safely  along  a  straight  road  and  he  has 
no  thought  of  turning  back. 

16.  Attention. — The  mind  of  a  man  refuses  to  pay 
heed  or  to  give  thought  to  anything  in  which  it  is  not 
interested.  If  you  wish  to  capture  a  man's  mind,  you 
must  first  of  all  get  his  attention,  and  you  cannot  do 
that  unless  you  stir  his  interest.  You  must  make  him 
feel  that  your  message  is  one  of  great  interest 
to  him,  one  of  importance  to  his  welfare,  something 
that  he  cannot  afford  to  miss.  He  is  more  interested 
in  himself  than  in  ariybody  else.  Hence  you  must 
appeal  to  his  self-interest  if  you  wish  him  to  attend  to 
you.  If  he  has  had  experience,  you  cannot  capture 
him  with  commonplace  phrases  or  with  form  letters. 
The  commonplaces  he  does  not  hear,  the  letters  he 
throws  into  his  wastebasket.  To  capture  him  you 
must  use  a  new  phrase  or  write  a  new  letter. 

The  mind  does  not  easily  give  long  and  concentrated 
attention  to  any  topic.  Men  are  very  much  the  slaves 
of  memory  and  imagination  and  like  best  to  wander 
away  from  the  business  immediately  in  hand.  It  is 
difficult  for  most  men  to  understand  how  Archimedes 
could  have  been  so  absorbed  in  his  mathematics  as  not 


110  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

to  know  that  the  City  of  Syracuse  was  falling,  or  how 
Horace  Greeley  could  sit  on  a  Broadway  doorstep  and 
write  a  masterful  editorial  for  the  Tribune.  That 
is  because  the  average  man,  not  being  absorbed  in  any 
one  interest,  cannot  shut  his  ears  and  be  deaf  to  the 
jargon  of  sounds  in  his  environment.  Yet  this  fac- 
ulty of  attention  and  concentration  is  one  that  the 
business  man  must  cultivate,  and  he  must  master  the 
art  of  rousing  and  holding  attention  in  others. 

REVIEW 

Make  an  analogy  between  the  four  main  parts  of  the  nervous 
system  and  a  business  organization. 

What  is  meant  by  (a)  motive,  (b)  appeal,  (c)  response? 

How  would  you  classify  appeals  and  how  may  such  a  classifi- 
cation serve  business  purposes? 

In  securing  action  or  decision  on  the  part  of  another  how  must 
appeals  based  on  common  human  traits  and  instincts  be  modified 
to  attract  and  hold  the  attention  of  persons  of  different  char- 
acteristics ? 


CHAPTER  V 

ETHICS  OF  BUSINESS 

1.  Science  of  ethics. — Ethics  comes  from  a  Greek 
word  meaning  "custom."  In  modern  times  it  has 
come  to  be  virtually  synonymous  with  morality  and  is 
the  science  which  seeks  to  determine  the  fundamental 
distinction  between  right  and  wrong  human  conduct. 
The  mere  fact  that  a  certain  practice  is  customary  is 
no  longer  accepted  as  evidence  that  it  is  ethical  or 
moral.  A  great  gulf  often  lies  between  morality  and 
conventionality. 

Philosophers  are  not  in  agreement  as  to  the  scien- 
tific basis  of  ethics.  Adam  Smith,  a  Scotch  professor 
of  moral  philosophy,  who,  in  1776,  published  the  first 
systematic  treatise  of  political  economy  and  is  known 
as  the  father  of  that  science,  found  the  basis  of  right 
and  wrong  in  the  principle  of  sympathy,  but  few  phi- 
losophers have  agreed  with  him.  The  Utilitarian 
school  of  philosophers  regarded  the  greatest  good  of 
the  greatest  number  as  the  fundamental  principle  of 
ethics;  an  act  which  causes  more  pain  than  pleasure, 
more  suffering  than  happiness,  does  more  harm  than 
good  and  is  wrong.  The  tenets  of  this  school  have 
been  severely  attacked,  especially  by  theologians,  as 

encouraging  materialism  and  selfishness.     Some  phi- 

111 


118  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

losophers  have  taught  that  men  know  right  and  wrong 
by  intuition,  while  others  have  held  that  the  canons  or 
laws  of  morality  are  to  be  found  only  in  the  Bible  and 
could  never  have  been  known  by  men  except  thru 
divine  revelation. 

But  we  are  not  concerned  about  the  philosophical 
basis  of  ethics.  In  a  civilized  country,  business  some- 
times gives  rise  to  perplexing  problems  in  ethics,  the 
dividing  line  between  right  and  wrong  conduct  not 
being  perfectly  clear,  but  as  a  rule  all  business  men 
know  perfectly  well  when  they  are  violating  the  moral 
law.  Their  common  sense,  their  judgment  tells  them 
so.  By  the  way,  when  common  sense  or  judgment  is 
passing  on  the  moral  quality  of  an  act  it  is  called  con- 
science. 

While  the  customary  procedure  is  not  always  or 
necessarily  the  most  ethical,  nevertheless  we  may 
safely  assume  that  any  procedure,  practice  or  policy 
is  right  and  ethical  if  it  has  the  general  approval  of 
our  business  associates,  especially  those  most  respected 
in  the  community.  The  essence  of  practical  ethics  is 
undoubtedly  found  in  the  golden  rule,  "do  unto  others 
as  you  would  have  them  do  unto  you."  In  the 
"street"  this  law  finds  expression  in  the  "square  deal." 

2.  The  moral  imperative  in  business. — What  are 
the  moral  obligations,  the  duties  of  the  business  man  ? 
Is  it  enough  that  he  be  honest  and  square  in  all  his 
dealings?  His  reputation  as  an  honest  dealer,  as  a 
man  who  has  never  cheated  a  customer  nor  violated 
the  law,  is  a  valuable  business  asset.     Has  he,  having 


ETHICS  OF  BUSINESS  113 

earned  this  reputation,  performed  all  his  duties  as  a 
business  man? 

Business  is  a  cooperative  matter.  Nothing  much 
can  be  accomplished  in  it  unless  men  work  together 
for  a  common  result.  Now,  men  cannot  be  closely 
associated,  working  side  by  side,  some  subordinate  to 
others,  without  that  clashing  of  self-interest  which 
gives  rise  to  moral  or  ethical  problems.  It  is  evident 
that  honesty  cannot  be  regarded  as  the  sole  necessary 
virtue  in  business.  Duty  demands  much  more  of  a 
business  man. 

Responsibility  and  duty  are  usually  commensurate 
with  power  and  authority;  hence  the  head  of  a  large 
business  with  many  employes  subject  to  his  will 
carries  upon  his  shoulders  serious  duties  as  well  as 
responsibilities.  He  may  ignore  the  moral  impera- 
tive or  command,  but  no  civilized  conscience  will  ac- 
cept the  excuse  of  Cain  that  he  is  not  "his  brother's 
keeper." 

Economics  teaches  that  in  general  the  rate  of  wages 
is  fixed  by  the  law  of  demand  and  supply.  When  an 
employe  thinks  that  his  particular  wage  "ought"  to 
be  raised,  has  the  employer  done  his  full  duty  by  that 
employe  when  he  quotes  to  him  the  law  of  demand  and 
supply?  Or  should  he,  or  one  of  his  representatives, 
make  clear  to  the  employe  just  why  he  is  not  worth 
more  and  what  he  must  do  to  make  his  services  more 
valuable  ?       * 

The  laws  of  political  economy  are  based  on  condi- 
tions as  they  exist,  not  on  conditions  that  ought  to  be. 


114  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

This  fact  the  enlightened  business  men  of  today  are 
beginning  to  understand  and  are  recognizing  it  as 
their  duty  to  improve  the  conditions  under  which  men 
work.  The  relations  of  employer  to  employe  are 
more  than  economic.  They  are  personal  and  ethical. 
The  business  man  who  thinks  of  his  men  as  so  many 
tools  or  machines  to  be  worked  to  the  utmost  and 
then  scrapped,  is  a  shameless  violator  of  the  moral 
law.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  employer  to  see  that  his 
men  shall  work  under  the  best  possible  conditions,  that 
their  souls  shall  be  properly  replenished  by  variety  of 
employment  and  by  recreation,  and  that  they  shall 
have  opportunity  for  mental  growth. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  it  is  absolutely  true  that  an 
employer  is  the  "keeper  of  his  employes."  The  busi- 
ness man  who  denies  it  is  ethically  unsound. 

The  man  who  does  not  cooperate  with  his  competi- 
tors in  their  effort  to  raise  standards,  enforce  laws  and 
prevent  unfair  practices,  is  ethically  recreant.  A 
hundred  years  ago  such  cooperation  was  not  practical, 
but  today  the  means  of  rapid  communication  and 
publicity  make  possible  what  may  be  called  solidarity 
or  unity  in  any  line  of  business  or  trade.  That  ac- 
counts for  the  great  increase  in  the  number  of  business 
associations  during  recent  years,  such  as  the  National 
Credit  Men's  Association,  the  American  Institute 
of  Accountants  and  the  American  Bankers'  As- 
sociation. One  of  the  objects  of  these  associations 
is  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  codes  of  ethics 
or  honor.    A  business  man  who  neglects  to  support 


ETHICS  OF  BUSINESS  115 

the  association  that  has  been  organized  for  the  good  of 
his  line  of  business  neglects  a  real  duty. 

3.  The  law  and  ethics. — It  would  be  impossible  for 
any  legislature,  however  wise  its  members,  to  enact 
statutes  embodying  all  the  prohibitions  and  impera- 
tives of  the  moral  law.  Legislatures  can  do  no  more 
than  make  illegal  such  practices  as  are  generally  rec- 
ognized to  be  unfair  and  harmful  to  the  community. 
When  they  attempt  to  go  further,  as  they  sometimes 
do,  and  prescribe  specific  rules  of  conduct  for  par- 
ticular cases,  they  usually  do  more  harm  than  good. 
Sometimes  by  too  sweeping  a  law  they  render  acts 
illegal  which  are  in  themselves  neither  culpable  nor 
injurious  to  society.  The  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act 
of  1890,  as  interpreted  by  the  courts,  proved  to  be  a 
law  of  this  kind.  Its  purpose  was  the  curbing  of 
monopoly,  but  its  terms  were  so  sweeping  that  it  ex- 
posed to  indictment  men  who  combined  their  busi- 
nesses with  the  best  of  motives  and  without  any 
thought  of  monopoly. 

Ethically  a  man  cannot  justify  himself  by  the  plea 
that  he  keeps  within  the  law.  An  act  or  practice  may 
be  entirely  lawful  and  yet  be  immoral  and  unethical. 
It  is  possible  for  a  business  man  to  be  morally  crim- 
inal and  depraved  without  violating  a  single  law  of  the 
land. 

4.  Codes  of  ethics. — Because  of  the  varying  condi- 
tions governing  conduct  in  the  different  callings  and 
because  the  law  cannot  possibly  take  them  all  into  ac- 
count, codes  of  ethics  or  inks  of  conduct  have  come 


11G  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

into  existence.  In  the  old  professions  of  law  and 
medicine  these  codes  are  clearly  defined  and  are  rigidly 
insisted  upon  by  practitioners.  To  laymen  some  of 
the  features  of  these  professional  codes  seem  un- 
reasonable and  unfair  to  the  public.  Yet  so  long  as 
these  codes  have  the  approval  of  our  best  lawyers  and 
physicians  the  laymen  must  be  content. 

As  yet  nobody  has  attempted  to  draft  a  code  of 
ethics  for  business  in  general.  Probably  such  a  code 
is  impracticable  because  of  the  different  customs  and 
conditions  that  prevail  in  different  businesses,  but  the 
necessity  for  codes  of  ethics  in  business  is  beginning 
to  be  clearly  recognized  and  in  certain  fields  of  busi- 
ness, definite  and  satisfactory  progress  is  being  made. 
In  a  not  far  distant  future  it  is  quite  possible  that  cer- 
tain practices  now  tolerated,  altho  not  generally  ap- 
proved, will  be  so  definitely  and  publicly  condemned 
in  a  written  code  of  ethics  that  the  business  man  who 
indulges  in  them  will  lose  caste  and  suffer  loss  of  repu- 
tation and  profit. 

5.  Caveat  emptor. — The  doctrine  of  caveat  emptor, 
the  Latin  for  "let  the  buyer  beware,"  is  losing  its  sig- 
nificance in  these  days  of  publicity  and  of  great  and 
rapid  transactions.  Quality  must  be  dependable  and 
is  so  in  most  general  lines  of  business.  Some  years 
ago  a  large  tobacco  company  bought  a  famous  brand 
of  cigars  and  then  began  to  cheapen  its  quality.  The 
fact  could  not  be  kept  secret  and  sales  collapsed. 
The  company  restored  the  quality  and  advertised  ex- 
tensively, but  could  not  recreate  the  demand. 


ETHICS  OF  BUSINESS  117 

Recently  one  of  the  shrewdest  automobile  dealers 
in  the  country  bought  over  six  million  dollars'  worth 
of  cars  from  a  manufacturer.  Up  to  the  day  of  buy- 
ing them  he  had  never  ridden  in  a  car  of  that  make. 
He  knew  the  reputation  of  the  car.  Its  merits  were 
so  well  accepted  and  so  many  of  the  cars  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  public  that  they  simply  had  to  be  all  right. 
He  did  not  expect  the  manufacturer  to  commit  finan- 
cial suicide  by  cheapening  the  standard. 

Big  business  is  impossible  if  allied  with  humbug 
and  deceit  or  misrepresentation.  If  there  were  any- 
thing mechanically  wrong  with  Ford  cars  or  with  the 
Ingersoll  watches,  they  could  not  have  reached  their 
present  sales.  Can  Hart,  Schaffner  &  Marx  clothes 
or  the  Westinghouse  electrical  products  be  anything 
else  than  full  value  ?  The  limelight  of  publicity  would 
immediately  make  havoc  with  sales  if  defects  or  de- 
terioration were  permitted. 

Legally  the  buyer  must  still  be  on  his  guard  to  be 
sure  that  the  goods  he  receives  are  what  he  believed 
them  to  be  when  the  purchase  was  made,  but  practi- 
cally, because  of  the  rising  standards  of  business  ethics 
and  because  of  the  increasing  appreciation  of  the 
value  of  good-will  as  an  asset,  buyers  of  almost  any 
article,  not  even  excepting  horses,  can  now  find 
markets  where  they  can  place  implicit  confidence  in 
tlie  representations  of  the  seller.  In  New  York  City 
today  there  are  firms  which  do  an  international  export 
business  in  commodities  which  they  never  see.  They 
buy  from  catalogs  and  samples  and  they  ship  to  all 


118  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

parts  of  the  globe,  machinery,  automobiles,  flour,  oil, 
prints,  lumber,  cotton,  grain  and  other  raw  materials. 
They  operate  in  small  offices.  They  have  no  ware- 
houses and  they  handle  no  goods.  They  buy  only 
from  dealers  in  whom  they  have  absolute  confidence. 

"Every  man  takes  care,"  said  Ralph  Waldo  Emer- 
son, "that  his  neighbor  does  not  cheat  him.  But  a 
day  comes  when  he  begins  to  care  that  he  does  not 
cheat  his  neighbor.     Then  all  goes  well." 

6.  Standards  enforced  by  law. — Since  many  goods 
are  not  sold  by  brand  or  firm  name,  legislation  has 
sometimes  been  found  necessary  to  reenforce  the 
standards  of  quality  set  by  responsible  firms.  Laws 
fixing  the  standard  of  sterling  silver  have  been  in 
effect  for  decades,  as  have  laws  for  enforcing  the  use 
of  correct  carat  marks  for  different  alloys  of  gold. 
The  "pure  food"  law  passed  in  1906  is  not  yet  uni- 
formly accepted  or  approved  by  dealers,  and  its  en- 
forcement is  difficult.  The  food,  drug  and  liquor 
trades  are  not  solidly  pledged  to  the  reform.  The 
ethical  standards  of  these  trades,  certain  successful 
firms  excepted,  is  below  that  of  the  law.  If  the  public 
were  not  so  vitally  concerned,  the  law  would  be  im- 
possible of  enforcement  at  all.  Honest  manufac- 
turers support  the  law,  for  it  enables  them  to  market 
their  wares  without  unfair  competition  from  un- 
scrupulous rivals. 

It  is  not  yet  generally  considered  disgraceful  to 
adulterate  silk  with  tin  and  cotton,  or  to  mix  wool  or 
linen  with  cotton  and  to  sell  the  fabric  to  the  public 


ETHICS  OF  BUSINESS  119 

as  pure  silk,  wool  or  linen.  The  public  does  not  seem 
vitally  interested  in  the  passage  of  a  "fabric  law." 
High  standards  of  ethics  in  the  textile  trades  as  a 
whole  are  not  yet  permanently  fixed,  and  the  public 
must  depend  upon  brands  for  protection.  Certain 
manufacturers,  however,  are  agitating  for  a  "fabric 
law"  requiring  correct  labeling  of  dry-goods. 

Some  years  ago  rebates  were  commonly  granted  by 
railroads  to  large  shippers,  but  the  practice  led  to  such 
unfair  discriminations  that  Congress  passed  a  law 
against  railroad  rebates.  The  beneficial  effects  of  the 
law  are  now  admitted  by  railroad  men  as  well  as  by 
business  men. 

7.  Unwise  laws. — When  Congress  or  the  legisla- 
ture of  a  state  enacts  a  law  which  has  not  the  approval 
of  business  men  generally,  many  a  business  man 
breaks  it  without  the  slightest  qualm  of  conscience. 
The  laws  against  usury,  for  example,  are  in  this  class. 
A  thousand  years  ago  it  was  thought  sinful  for  the 
lender  of  money  to  charge  the  borrower  interest.  It 
was  argued  that  money,  being  a  dead  thing,  could  not 
by  itself  earn  or  produce.  The  legitimacy  of  the  in- 
terest charge  is  now  generally  recognized,  but  many 
people  still  have  erroneous  ideas  about  the  laws  gov- 
erning the  rate  of  interest.  There  is  a  popular  not  ion 
that  no  man  should  be  compelled  to  pay  over  G  per 
cent  for  borrowed  money,  and  several  state  legisla- 
tures in  the  United  States  have  enacted  this  notion 
into  a  law.  Lenders  evade  the  law  without  com- 
punction,  by  charging  a   commission  whenever   the 


1*0  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

money  market  conditions  warrant  a  rate  higher  than 
the  maximum  fixed  by  law.  Until  1882,  the  rate  of 
interest  on  call  loans  on  the  New  York  Stock  Ex- 
change was  limited  to  6  per  cent,  but  lenders  by  means 
of  commissions  sometimes  ran  the  rate  up  to  700  per 
cent  per  annum.  Since  the  repeal  of  the  law  bor- 
rowers in  Wall  Street  have  fared  better  than  when 
the  law  was  in  force. 

Certain  kinds  of  borrowers  undoubtedly  need  pro- 
tection by  the  law.  They  are  the  poor  and  ignorant 
people  who  sometimes  are  forced  to  go  to  the  money 
lender,  often  the  pawn  shop  or  a  so-called  "money 
shark,"  and  to  pledge  their  belongings  in  order  that 
they  may  get  money  to  save  themselves  from  eviction 
or  famine.  In  some  states,  borrowers  of  this  class  are 
carefully  protected  by  laws  which  have  the  approval 
of  business  men  generally. 

8.  Trades  lacking  standards. — In  some  lines  of 
business  there  are  still  lacking  accepted  and  approved 
ethical  standards.  The  people  of  Xew  York  City, 
for  example,  have  little  faith  in  the  average  dealer 
in  poultry.  It  is  generally  felt  that  the  "broiler" 
must  be  examined  carefully  to  see  that  its  weight  has 
not  been  augmented  by  the  insertion  into  its  crop  of 
gravel,  oyster  shells,  or  sand. 

Produce  commission  men  are  also  under  some  sus- 
picion. The  amateur  dealing  with  them  does  not  feel 
at  all  certain  that  he  can  rely  upon  their  word,  nor 
does  the  farmer  who  ships  them  his  produce.  Of 
course,  the  wide-awake  grocer  in  any  large  city  knows 


ETHICS  OF  BUSINESS  121 

the  commission  men  he  can  trust.     These  are  the  men 
who  in  the  long  run  prosper. 

One  hears  also  much  complaint  about  the  practices 
of  certain  import  and  export  commission  merchants. 
It  is  said  that  many  of  them  accept  commissions  from 
both  buyer  and  seller,  a  practice  which  would  not  be 
tolerated  in  domestic  trade.  As  our  foreign  business 
grows  more  important,  a  standard  of  ethics  will  evolve 
which  will  put  out  of  business  those  who  indulge  in 
unfair  practices. 

It  used  to  be  said  that  no  one  could  be  honest  and 
be  a  second-hand  automobile  dealer.  Noisy  cylinders 
were  charmed  to  temporary  silence  and  the  labors  of 
loose  gears  drowned  in  thick  grease.  The  engine  was 
tuned  up  in  order  to  imitate  for  the  time  being  proper 
performance.  Today  the  second-hand  automobile 
business  has  mostly  passed  into  the  hands  of  scrupu- 
lous men  whose  guarantees  are  genuine. 

9.  Merchandising. — The  recent  rapid  growth  of  the 
department  store  in  the  cities  of  the  United  States 
and  of  the  large  mail-order  houses  is  the  best  possible 
evidence  of  the  commercial  importance  and  value  of 
the  practical  applications  of  ethical  standards  in  busi- 
ness. Hundreds  of  thousands  of  farmers  all  over  the 
United  States  feel  certain  that  they  will  get  their 
money's  worth  when  they  order  supplies  from  certain 
mail  order  houses.  Their  experience  with  these 
houses  has  uniformly  been  satisfactory,  and  they 
know  they  can  return  the  goods  if  they  are  dissatisfied. 
If  the  managers  of  these  houses  had  not  insisted  upon 


l£g  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

a  high  ethical  standard,  but  had  sought  by  misleading 
advertisements  and  catalogs  to  increase  their 
sales,  they  would  in  all  probability  have  met  with  fail- 
ure. 

As  exponents  of  the  "square  deal"  in  the  depart- 
ment store,  A.  T.  Stewart,  Marshall  Field  and  John 
Wanamaker  were  the  pacemakers  in  the  beginning. 
They  insisted  upon  the  "one  price  only"  for  all  cus- 
tomers and  upon  the  policy  of  "money  back  if  dissatis- 
fied." The  Woolworth  five  and  ten  cent  stores,  de- 
spite the  fine  business  idea  underlying  them,  could 
not  have  prospered  had  they  not  been  conducted  in 
such  a  manner  that  people  enter  them  with  confidence 
as  well  as  with  curiosity.  The  merchant  who  misrep- 
resents the  quality  of  his  goods,  who  advertises  bogui- 
fire  sales,  who  refuses  to  be  fair  with  dissatisfied  cus- 
tomers, is  rapidly  being  relegated  to  the  back  streets. 
His  lack  of  moral  quality  classes  him  with  the  unfit 
in  business  and  will  lead  to  his  extermination. 

10.  Trade  associations. — A  potent  influence  in 
standardizing  business  practices  has  been  exerted  by 
the  various  trade  associations.  Mr.ny  of  these  asso- 
ciations have  worked  out  practical  codes  of  ethics 
which  have  received  general  acceptance  among  the 
members.  These  associations,  which  have  been  or- 
ganized in  connection  with  all  the  important  trades 
of  the  country,  have  for  their  purpose  the  advance- 
ment of  the  common  interests  of  their  membership, 
and  are  in  themselves  evidence  of  the  fact  that  busi- 


ETHICS  OF  BUSINESS  123 

ness  standards  in  the  United  States  are  tend- 
ing steadily  upward.  Among  the  members  there 
is  the  keenest  kind  of  competition  for  trade,  yet  along 
with  this  competition  there  exists  a  cordial  spirit  of 
cooperation,  each  member  realizing  that  the  higher 
interests  of  his  trade  are  of  vital  concern  to  him  per- 
sonally. 

The  fruit-packing  industry  of  the  Northwest  is 
often  referred  to  as  a  classic  example  of  trade  associa- 
tions. Knowing  the  necessity  for  permanent  mar- 
kets, growers  got  together  some  years  ago  and  agreed 
upon  standards  of  packing.  Thereafter  western  fruit 
came  to  the  East  uniform  in  size  and  quality.  As  a 
result  the  market  for  eastern  fruit  was  demoralized 
and  it  did  not  revive  until  similar  action  was  taken  in 
the  East.  The  small  wormy  fruit  at  the  bottom  had 
to  go. 

The  National  Association  of  Credit  Men  has  been  a 
powerful  factor  in  establishing  and  maintaining  high 
standards  of  business  conduct.  The  association  has 
adopted  eight  "canons  of  commercial  ethics"  which 
have  exerted  a  tine  influence  on  the  conduct  of  credit 
men  and  their  employers. 

The  National  Association  of  Purchasing  Agents  is 
doing  much  to  free  business  transactions  from  certain 
objectionable  features.  Not  many  years  ago,  for  ex- 
ample, the  acceptance  by  a  purchasing  agent  of  a  com- 
mission, or  of  some  other  valuable  consideration,  was 
tolerated  and  regarded  as  quite  the  proper  thing. 


I— 10 


184  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

Today  commissions  are  not  welcome  and  any  salesman 
who  attempts  to  arrange  such  retainers  injures  his 
chances  of  sale. 

Of  all  the  classes  of  business  men  who  have  sincerely 
attempted  to  work  out  standards  of  business  conduct 
the  advertising  men  have  had  the  hardest  problem,  but 
their  various  associations,  national  and  local,  have 
worked  at  it  with  great  intelligence  and  determination. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  hope  that  the  time  will  soon  come 
when  a  mendacious,  unprincipled  advertiser  will  be 
unable  to  get  his  name  into  the  columns  of  a  respect- 
able newspaper  or  magazine.  As  a  result  of  the 
vigorous  educational  campaigns  carried  on  by  adver- 
tising clubs  and  associations  much  objectionable 
advertising  has  already  been  eliminated  from  our 
newspapers. 

11.  Wall  Street. — Thruout  the  country  there  exists 
an  idea  that  Wall  Street  is  a  very  wicked  place  and 
that  the  Xew  York  Stock  Exchange  is  a  den  of  gam- 
blers who  would  not  hesitatcto  ruin  the  country  if  they 
thereby  could  make  a  dollar.  Ir  many  states  the 
prejudice  against  Wall  Street  is  so  bitter  that  men 
are  sent  to  Congress  virtually  pledged  to  oppose  any 
measure  that  has  the  hearty  support  of  the  financial 
interests  of  Xew  York  City.  A  demagogue  can  al- 
ways win  votes  by  denouncing  the  conspiracies,  the 
trickery,  the  deceit,  the  corruption,  which  are  alleged 
to  exist  in  Wall  Street. 

The  popular  idea  of  Wall  Street  and  its  practices  is 
entirely  erroneous.     By  "Wall  Street"  is  meant  the 


ETHICS  OF  BUSINESS  125 

financial  and  speculative  markets  of  the  United 
States.  It  is  the  national  loan  or  capital  market. 
Wherever  capital  is  loaned  and  borrowed,  wherever 
securities  are  bought  and  sold,  there  is  Wall  Street. 
It  is  called  Wall  Street  merely  because  the  greatest 
financial  houses  of  the  country  happen  to  be  located 
in  or  near  a  street  of  that  name.  As  the  reader  will 
discover  in  reading  the  Modern  Business  Texts  on 
"The  Exchanges  and  Speculation"  and  "Investment," 
the  business  transactions  of  Wall  Street  are  the  great- 
est done  anywhere  in  the  world.  The  man  who  says 
that  Wall  Street  is  controlled  by  gamblers  or  by  men 
lacking  principle  or  patriotic  sentiment  is,  without 
knowing  it,  slandering  the  whole  American  people. 
The  leaders  of  Wall  Street  live  not  only  in  New  York, 
but  in  Boston,  Chicago,  Seattle,  San  Francisco,  St. 
Louis  and  in  other  cities  and  towns.  They  got  their 
leadership  with  the  approval  of  the  American  people ; 
and  by  their  ability  they  have  been  able  to  plan  and 
finance  those  mighty  industries  which  give  employ- 
ment to  millions  of  men  and  have  placed  the  United 
States  first  among  nations  in  the  production  of  wealth. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  industry  as  well  as  finance 
the  nation's  brain  is  in  "Wall  Street." 

The  reader  should  not  be  surprised,  therefore,  when 
told  that  nowhere  in  the  world  will  he  find  a  higher 
code  of  business  honor  than  that  which  prevails  in 
Wall  Street.  The  man  who  does  not  keep  his  word, 
even  tho  he  has  given  it  only  by  telephone,  the  man 
who  seeks  to  evade  a  contract  because  of  some  tech- 


126  Hl'SINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

nicality,  the  man  who  misrepresents,  is  not  tolerated 
in  the  "street."  As  soon  as  he  is  found  out  he  is 
shunned.  The  men  who  give  character  to  the 
"street,"  doing  90  per  cent  of  its  real  business,  will 
have  nothing  more  to  do  with  him.  Undoubtedly 
trickery  and  deception  are  practised  in  the  shadows  of 
Wall  Street  and  many  guileless  investors  are  fleeced. 
It  would  be  strange,  indeed,  if  this  were  not  true,  for 
thieves  and  swindlers  are  attracted  to  the  "street"  as 
are  flies  to  an  open  sugar  barrel.  Foolish,  gullible 
persons,  reading  about  the  many  million  dollar  trans- 
actions in  the  "street,"  often  go  there  hoping  to  pick 
up  a  fortune  without  work.  The  keen  men  who  wel- 
come them  on  arrival,  or  who  advertise  for  them  in 
newspapers,  are  not  the  regulars  of  Wall  Street. 
They  are  despised  parasites,  for  whose  extermination 
the  men  who  do  the  real  business  in  the  "street"  never 
cease  to  work. 

12.  New  York  Stock  Exchange. — The  New  York 
Stock  Exchange  is  a  voluntary  association  of  men  in- 
terested in  the  purchase  and  sale  of  stocks  and  bonds. 
Its  transactions,  amounting  daily  to  many  million  dol- 
lars, originate  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  Some  ex- 
perts have  estimated  that  less  than  half  its  business 
originates  in  Newr  York  City.  The  history  of  the  Ex- 
change reveals  a  constant  effort  on  the  part  of  its 
governors  to  bring  its  methods  up  to  the  highest  pos- 
sible standard  and  to  prevent  any  practice  or  custom 
which  wrill  tend  to  give  wrong  impressions  to  out- 
siders.    No  code  of  ethics  so-called  has  been  adopted, 


ETHICS  OF  BUSINESS  127 

yet  an  unwritten  code  exists  which  no  broker  dare 
violate.  The  governors  of  the  Exchange  seem  to 
realize  fully  their  responsibility  to  the  public,  and  are 
not  slow  to  rule  against  any  evil  or  dangerous  prac- 
tice that  is  brought  to  their  notice.  It  is  doubtful  if 
the  affairs  of  any  other  business  organization  in  the 
country  are  managed  in  accordance  with  an  ethical 
code  of  finer  qualit}T. 

Most  men  who  lose  money  by  dabbling  in  stocks  are 
victims  of  their  own  greed  and  folly.  In  order  to 
save  such  men  from  themselves,  if  that  is  possible,  the 
governors  of  the  Stock  Exchange  have  adopted  a 
very  strict  rule  with  regard  to  advertising  done  by  its 
members.  In  the  words  of  Mr.  William  C.  Van  Ant- 
werp speaking  for  the  governors  of  the  Exchange : 

We  have  said  to  the  members,  "you  must  not  only  put 
your  advertising  on  a  dignified  plane,  but  you  must  not  use 
anything  in  the  nature  of  catch  phrases  or  alluring  devices 
designed  to  influence  the  judgment  of  those  to  whom  it  is 
addressed.  You  may  advertise  as  generously  as  you  please; 
supply  the  public  with  as  much  educational  matter  as  you 
choose ;  offer  what  you  have  for  sale,  but  do  not  attempt 
anything  remotely  approaching  the  business  of  a  tipster." 

13.  Ethics  of  directors. — Not  many  years  ago  the* 
board  of  directors  of  a  large  industrial  corporation 
suddenly  decided  to  stop  dividends.  Before  final  ad- 
journment every  member  of  the  directors  present  had 
excused  himself  under  some  pretext  or  other  and  tele- 
phoned orders  to  his  broker  to  sell  stock. 

It  was  considered  conventional  and  proper  for  a 
man  at  the  head  of  a  corporation,  the  "insider,"  to 


128  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

take  advantage  in  the  market  of  all  secret  informa- 
tion. It  was  usual  for  those  in  charge  to  organize 
private  firms  to  sell  to  and  buy  from  the  large  cor- 
poration on  terms  not  at  all  to  the  advantage  of  the 
latter. 

But  big  corporate  business  today  is,  as  a  rule,  done 
on  strictly  ethical  principles.  Never  before  was  there 
such  a  keen  feeling  of  responsibility  to  stockholders, 
customers,  employes  and  the  public.  Little  real  "in- 
side information"  exists.  In  fact  the  public  is 
promptly  informed  as  to  developments  in  most  cor- 
poration affairs. 

14.  Ethics  of  a  great  industry. — The  United  States 
Steel  Corporation,  the  largest  industrial  organization 
in  the  world,  has  done  much  to  lift  ethical  standards 
in  business.  Assailed  by  government  judicial  action, 
no  competitor  could  be  found  to  malign  it ;  indeed,  all 
wondered  at  its  helpful  spirit  of  cooperation.  No 
employe  could  give  material  evidence  of  deliberate, 
unfair  treatment.  The  attitude  of  the  corporation  in 
regard  to  competition  and  its  employes  is  expressed 
in  the  following  extracts  from  speeches  made  by  the 
chairman  of  its  board  of  directors: 

In  the  days  gone  by,  never  to  return  it  is  to  be  hoped,  it 
was  a  common  practice  for  competitors  in  business  to  act  in 
accordance  with  the  rule  that  might  makes  right,  and  on  the 
basis  that  permanent  success  could  be  reached  and  enjoyed 
only  by  those  having  the  greatest  strength  and  power  or  the 
.  longest  purse.  As  a  result,  it  frequently  happened  that  the 
weaker  or  poorer  were  crushed  and  destroyed.  A  com- 
petitor was  treated  as  a  common  enem}\      Methods  for  his 


ETHICS  OF  BUSINESS  129 

defeat  and  overthrow  were  used  regardless  of  good  morals  or 
good  policy.  Possibly,  in  some  instances,  this  redounded  to 
the  pecuniary  advantage  of  a  few,  tho  even  that  is  doubtful. 
Certainly,  it  was  not  permanently  beneficial  to  the  general 
public ;  and,  from  the  standpoint  of  good  morals,  was  a  shame 
and  a  disgrace. 

In  passing,  it  is  proper  to  say  that  in  the  long  run  an 
unreasonable  destructive  competition,  such  as  I  have  re- 
ferred to,  is  prejudicial  to  the  best  interests  of  all  concerned, 
including  the  manufacturer,  his  workmen,  his  customers  and 
the  general  public. 

We  do  not  need  the  suggestions  of  any  one  in  order  to 
make  up  our  minds  as  to  what  we  will  do  when  these  ques- 
tions of  ethics  and  economics  and  politics  are  brought  to  our 
attention.  We  should  be  the  leaders  and  not  the  followers. 
We  should  undertake  to  place  ourselves  on  a  plane  much 
higher  than  the  demagogue  or  the  reformer  who  attempts 
to  assail  us  and  who  pretends  to  be  the  champion  of  the 
laboring  man.  We  do  not  need  any  suggestions  from  people 
like  that.  We  know  what  our  duty  is,  we  know  what  the 
rights  of  our  employes  are,  and  we  feel  obligated,  and  take 
pleasure  in  knowing  that  we  are  at  all  times  doing  all  we 
can  for  the  people  in  our  employ  in  keeping  their  wages  up 
and  in  bettering  their  condition  and  keeping  them  in  a  posi- 
tion where  they  may  enjoy  life. 

REVIEW 

Discuss  the  moral  imperative  in  business. 

What  is  meant  by  caveat  emptor?  Do  business  men  today 
generally  regard  this  as  good  business  as  well  as  good  law  ? 

In  what  lines  of  goods  has  the  law  fixed  effective  standards, 
and  where  has  it  been  ineffective?     Why? 

Name  some  lines  of  business  in  which  low  standards  of  ethics 
are  prevalent. 

How  have  voluntary  associations  helped  to  standardize  husi 
ness  practice?     Give  some  examples. 

What  is  your  conception  of  Wall  Street?  Discuss  the  code  of 
honor  prevailing  there. 


CHAPTER  VI 

VISION,  OR  THE  IDEA 

1.  Imagination. — Business  men  as  a  rule  do  not 
realize  their  indebtedness  to  imagination.  That 
faculty  is  commonly  thought  of,  not  as  a  work-horse, 
but  as  a  thorobred  to  be  driven  only  by  the  poet, 
the  artist,  the  story-writer.  The  imaginative  man  is 
thought  of  as  a  dreamer.  He  may  entertain  us  with 
the  beautiful  pictures  his  mind  creates,  but  we  do  not 
expect  him  to  be  alert  in  practical  affairs.  Few  par- 
ents would  think  their  son  fitted  for  a  business  career 
because  his  teachers  had  discovered  that  he  possessed 
a  vivid  and  active  imagination. 

This  popular  view  of  imagination  is  erroneous  be- 
cause it  rests  upon  an  inadequate  conception  of  the 
nature  of  the  faculty  and  upon  a  superficial  idea 
of  business.  No  man  of  feeble  imagination  ever 
achieved  real  success  in  business. 

By  imagination  is  meant  the  mind's  ability  to  recall 
past  experiences — sensations,  emotions,  feelings,  per- 
ceptions— and  to  cause  these  to  reappear  in  the  con- 
sciousness in  combinations  of  infinite  variety. 

The  simplest  act  of  the  imagination  is  the  recollec- 
tion of  a  past  experience,  as  when  a  man  recalls  his 
enjoyment  of  a  recent   fishing  excursion — the  pic- 

130 


VISION,  OR  THE  IDEA  131 

ture  of  a  mountain  brook  in  which  he  wooed  the  trout, 
or  the  music  he  heard  at  the  opera  last  evening,  or 
the  picture  of  the  table  at  which  he  ate  his  first  home 
dinner  after  coming  from  the  camp.  These  are  all 
simple  acts  of  memory  in  which  imagination  plays  its 
part.  More  or  less  vivid  copies  of  the  originals  are 
reproduced  in  the  consciousness. 

But  the  mind  can  do  more.  It  may  combine  all 
four  of  these  memories  and  create  a  new  fishing  camp, 
one  where  he  is  casting  for  trout  in  the  mountain 
stream,  eating  dinner  from  the  home  table,  and  in  the 
evening  listening  to  the  opera,  the  singers  being  staged 
in  a  grove  of  pines  under  Hamlet's  "majestical  roof 
fretted  with  golden  fire."  Here  we  have  constructive 
or  productive  imagination,  fantastic  and  dreamlike 
because  past  experiences  are  combined  in  a  way  prac- 
tically impossible. 

All  men  possess  the  power  of  imagination,  and  in 
most  people  it  is  a  very  active  faculty ;  yet  much  of  its 
activity  is  purposeless  and  useless. 

2.  Visual. — The  imaginations  of  many  people  re- 
produce most  easily  sight  images,  things  that  have 
been  seen  with  the  eye.  This  power  is  the  basis  of 
what  is  commonly  called  "visual"  memory.  Some 
people  quickly  forget  words  that  are  spoken  to  them, 
but  will  easily  commit  to  memory  a  poem  or  an  ora- 
tion from  a  printed  page.  It  is  not  unusual  for  a 
man  to  recall  something  that  he  read  as  a  boy  in  his 
geography  or  history,  and  to  remember  exactly 
whether  the  fact  was  stated  on  the  left-hand  or  right- 


188  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

hand  page  or  at  the  top  or  the  bottom  of  the  page. 

I  know  a  man  who  used  to  sing  in  a  church  choir. 
He  was  not  a  very  good  singer,  but  he  eould  read  the 
notes  and  he  made  a  tolerable  bass.  He  has  sung  no 
hymns  for  twenty  years,  yet  he  recalls  accurately  the 
key  of  the  tune  to  which  each  hymn  is  set.  His  im- 
agination reproduces  before  him  the  page  and  musical 
notation  of  the  hymn  book.  If  the  music  was  not 
actually  before  him,  he  could  not  sing  a  tune  unless 
his  imagination  reproduced  the  notes  as  they  appeared 
on  the  page.  He  has  visual  memory  or  imagination. 
The  painter  and  sculptor  possess  imagination  of  this 
sort  in  the  highest  degree.1 

Men  differ  greatly  in  their  power  to  visualize.  It 
is  a  source  of  pleasure  to  the  possessor  and,  as  we 
shall  see,  can  be  made  to  do  useful  work  in  business. 
Without  its  aid  an  inventor  would  be  as  helpless  as  the 
builder  who  has  no  tools,  or  bricks,  or  lumber. 

3.  Sound  and  other  sense  images. — The  ability  to 
recall  sounds,  impressions  on  the  consciousness  pro- 
duced thru  the  ear,  is  believed  to  be  rarer  than  the 
visual  memory  or  imagination.  It  is  highly  devel- 
oped in  the  blind,  for  their  visual  imagination  receives 
no  stimulus.  It  must  be  especially  strong  in  the 
musician.     The  aural  imagination  of  the  deaf  Bee- 

i  "A  person  whose  visual  imagination  is  strong  finds  it  hard  to  under- 
stand how  those  who  are  without  the  faculty  can  think  at  all.  Some 
people  undoubtedly  have  no  visual  images  at  all  worthy  of  the  name, 
and  instead  of  seeing  their  breakfast  table,  they  tell  you  that  they 
remember  it  or  know  what  was  on  it.  The  'mind-stuff'  of  which  this 
'knowing'  is  made  seems  to  be  verbal  images  exclusively."  William 
James,  "Psychology,"  p.  305. 


VISION,  OR  THE  IDEA  133 

thoven  was  able  to  recombine  sounds  in  his  conscious- 
ness and  produce  marvelous  harmonies.  We  say  of 
such  a  man  that  the  music  is  in  his  soul.  People  with 
an  "ear  for  music"  are  often  able  to  reproduce  a 
melody  after  hearing  it  only  once.  Similarly  we  are 
able  to  reproduce  more  or  less  vividly  the  sensations 
of  touch,  taste  and  smell,  and  various  painful  and 
pleasant  emotions  that  we  have  experienced  in  the 
past. 

4.  Memory  supplies  the  materials. — The  imagina- 
tion in  its  constructive  efforts  is  limited  to  the  mate- 
rials which  memory  can  furnish.  It  creates  no  new 
images  of  any  kind,  no  new  states  of  consciousness. 
Imagination  is  a  marvelous  builder,  but  it  can  ac- 
complish nothing  without  the  aid  of  its  faithful  hod- 
carrier,  the  memory. 

It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  the  imagination  of  a  man 
who  has  had  little  or  no  experience  in  business  can 
build  for  him  no  new  plans  or  visions  that  will  be  of 
much  value.  When  such  a  man,  not  knowing  the 
limitations  under  which  his  imagination  must  work, 
plans  great  ventures  in  business,  he  fails  time  and 
again  and  is  called  a  visionary.  Colonel  Sellers, 
Mark  Twain's  immortal  visionary,  had  a  scheme  every 
few  days  and  there  were  always  "millions  in  it."  He 
knew  nothing  about  the  details  of  business,  yet  he  had 
superb  confidence  in  his  ability  as  a  fortune  builder. 
Colonel  Sellers  is  still  alive;  you  can  find  him  in  al- 
most every  town  and  on  every  street. 

We  may  think  of  imagination  as  a  Pegasus  in 


184  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

harness,  but  the  driver  must  be  a  man  who  knows  every 
twist  and  turn  of  the  road.  In  front  of  a  green  driver, 
this  winged  steed  delights  in  a  runaway  and  smash-up. 

It  is  well  for  the  young  business  man  to  know  that 
the  drudgery  of  the  office,  which  is  so  distasteful  to 
him,  is  essential  to  his  development.  As  a  routine 
worker  he  is  storing  his  memory  with  facts  or  experi- 
ences of  which  his  imagination  may  make  valuable  use 
in  later  years. 

5.  Imagination  in  science. — The  aim  of  science,  as 
was  explained  in  the  Introduction,  is  knowledge  or 
understanding.  Of  what  possible  use  can  imagina- 
tion, the  builder  of  air  castles,  be  to  the  scientist  ?  He 
is  seeking  for  truth  and  can,  of  course,  get  some  aid 
from  his  memory,  but,  some  reader  may  say,  "Imag- 
ination does  not  think  or  reason  and  can  be  of  no  help 
to  him." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  scientist  who  is  exploring 
new  realms  of  knowledge  employs  his  imagination 
as  much  as  he  does  his  reason  or  judgment. 
When  a  man  is  seeking  to  explain  a  phenomenon,  it 
is  the  imagination  which  constructs  the  necessary 
hypothesis.1  It  was  Newton's  imagination  which  dis- 
covered the  law  of  gravitation ;  it  was  his  reason  which 
verified  it  and  finally  accepted  the  law  as  the  truth. 
The  theory  of  evolution  had  been  in  existence  for 
many  years  as  a  product  of  the  imagination  before  the 
patient  studies  of  Darwin  and  Wallace  brought  forth 

i  The  reader  should  review  the  discussion  of  Hypothesis  and  Theory 
in  the  Introduction  to  this  volume. 


VISION,  OR  THE  IDEA  135 

data  which  satisfied  the  reason.  Copernicus,  who  is 
credited  with  the  discovery  of  our  planetary  or  solar 
system,  undoubtedly  in  his  imagination  pictured  the 
planets  moving  around  the  central  sun,  and  the  moon 
about  the  earth,  before  his  reason  and  judgment  had 
weighed  and  sifted  all  the  phenomena  and  accepted 
as  true  the  hypothesis  which  his  imagination  had 
created. 

A  student  who  is  traversing  fields  of  science  that 
have  already  been  explored,  relies  most  upon  his  un- 
derstanding and  memory,  but  when  he  gets  to  the 
frontiers  of  truth  he  can  go  no  farther  without  the 
aid  of  imagination.  Let  the  reader  use  his  own  im- 
agination and  put  himself  in  the  place  of  the  first 
geometer.  That  thinker  saw  at  a  glance  the  truth 
of  propositions  which  we  call  axioms,  but  the  theor- 
ems now  found  in  the  textbooks  were  unknown  to 
him.  It  was  his  imagination  which  suggested  that 
the  angles  opposite  the  two  equal  sides  of  a  triangle 
must  be  equal.  He  hunted  for  evidence,  and  by  a 
logical  use  of  the  axioms  in  his  possession  he  convinced 
his  reason  of  the  truth  of  the  proposition. 

Imagination  and  memory  have  played  their  im- 
portant parts  in  the  demonstration  of  all  mathematical 
truths.  A  man  of  weak  imagination  is  never  a  really 
great  mathematician.  The  arithmetical  processes, 
multiplication  and  division,  which  are  short  processes 
of  addition  and  subtraction,  were  suggested  by  the 
imagination  of  man  thousands  of  years  ago.  Hoth 
algebra  and  geometry,  when  properly  taught,  owe 


V36  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

their  charm  almost  entirely  to  the  play  they  give  to 
the  student's  imagination. 

If  imagination,  a  faculty  apparently  so  irrational, 
can  be  made  of  so  much  use  to  the  scientist,  it  would 
be  strange,  indeed,  if  it  could  not  be  drafted  into  the 
service  of  the  business  man. 

6.  The  ideal. — Imagination  constructs  for  men 
more  or  less  definite  ideas  or  pictures  of  the  things 
which  will  give  them  greatest  satisfaction.  For  a  man 
whose  chief  joy  is  eating,  his  imagination  plans  a  din- 
ner which  no  cook  ever  sets  before  him.  It  is  his 
ideal  dinner,  and  he  hopes  to  eat  it  when  he  gets  to 
heaven. 

The  great  artists  are  never  quite  satisfied  with  their 
creations.  Their  imaginations  have  built  for  them 
an  ideal  which  they  cannot  quite  convert  into  reality. 

A  farmer  unconsciously  constructs  an  ideal  farm 
in  an  ideal  climate,  periods  of  rainfall  and  sunshine  at 
just  the  right  intervals. 

The  ideal  is  the  highest  product  of  the  imagination. 
Using  those  past  experiences  which  have  given  us  the 
most  pleasurable  emotions,  or  have  proved  themselves 
of  golden  worth  to  our  reason,  the  imagination, 
spurred  sometimes  by  our  pleasure-loving  senses, 
sometimes  by  our  conscience,  sometimes  by  our  desire 
for  success  and  happiness,  pictures  those  experiences 
to  us  in  a  combination  which  seems  absolutely  perfect. 
Thus  it  is  we  get  the  ideal.  It  is  a  human  product 
and  may  be  far  from  perfection,  yet  to  every  man  his 
ideal  has  all  the  qualities  of  perfection. 


VISION,  OR  THE  IDEA  137 

Unconsciously  the  imagination  of  every  man  is  for- 
ever at  work  building  ideals  that  charm  his  soul  and 
stir  him  to  activity.  The  ideals  of  one  man  may  seem 
base,  vulgar  and  commonplace  to  a  man  of  higher 
type,  whereas  the  ideals  of  the  latter  may  seem  fool- 
ish, impracticable,  worthless  to  the  man  of  cheaper 
tastes. 

Xo  man  can  subdue  his  imagination  and  keep  it 
from  building  ideals.  A  man's  imagination  keeps  for- 
ever at  its  work  and  constructs  for  him  ideals  in  ac- 
cordance with  which  he  must  live.  In  the  firma- 
ment of  every  man's  soul  there  is  a  polar  star — it  is 
the  ideal  that  dominates  his  life. 

Such  being  the  case,  it  is  important  that  each  of  us 
give  some  thought  to  the  character  of  the  ideals  which 
our  imagination  is.  building.  If  we  examine  them 
critically  with  our  judgment,  we  may  discover  that 
their  perfection  is  only  apparent,  and  that  their  domi- 
nance in  our  life  will  sooner  or  later  bring  us  into 
sackcloth  and  ashes.  While  we  cannot  chain  our 
imagination  or  hitch  it  to  a  post,  yet  we  can,  if 
we  will,  supervise  its  marvelous  work  and  make  it 
build  for  us  ideals  which  we  may  struggle  toward 
without  disloyalty  to  our  reason  or  to  our  con- 
science. 

If  a  business  man's  ideal  is  merely  the  accumula- 
tion of  a  great  fortune,  is  he  not  merely  chasing  the 
<j)ot  of  gold  at  the  end  of  the  rainbow? 

7.  Vision  and  judgment. — The  reader  will  have 
already  discovered  that  imagination  is  a  faculty  that 


138  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

serves  no  useful  purpose  unless  bridled  and  guided  by 
judgment  and  common  sense. 

To  get  an  idea  of  what  imagination  can  do  by  itself 
a  man  has  only  to  recall  one  of  his  dreams.  During 
our  sleep  the  will  and  reason  are  at  rest,  but  imagina- 
tion, particularly  if  we  have  overeaten  before  going 
to  bed,  often  amuses  itself  by  galloping  around  the 
universe.  In  our  dreams  imagination  shows  us  noth- 
ing new,  but  it  often  makes  up  most  startling  combina- 
tions out  of  the  materials  consciously  and  uncon- 
sciously stored  in  our  memories.  The  notion  that 
dreams  possess  any  real  significance  as  regards  our 
future  belongs  to  the  same  category  of  humbug  as  the 
telling  of  fortunes  by  cards  or  by  the  grounds  in  a 
tea  cup.  Dreams  usually  mean  that  we  are  suffering 
from  some  intestinal  disturbance,  that  we  are  sleep- 
ing lightly,  and  that  imagination,  perhaps,  is  seeking 
to  amuse  us  with  its  wondrous  kaleidoscope. 

Let  us  here  recall  the  fact  that  the  mind  is  a  unit, 
a  single  entity,  and  that  what  we  call  imagination  is 
a  name  we  give  to  one  of  its  powers  or  faculties.  Rea- 
son is  another  power,  memory  another.  Just  as  with 
our  bodies  we  can  crawl,  walk,  run,  climb,  or  lift,  so 
with  our  mind  we  can  reason,  feel,  suffer,  enjoy,  re- 
member, imagine.  The  whole  mind  is  occupied  in 
each  one  of  these  forms  of  its  activity.  Sometimes, 
being  weary,  the  mind  may  lazily  indulge  in  the  pleas- 
ures of  imagination  and  not  seek  to  make  the  pictures 
presented  conform  to  the  rules  of  reason  or  the  facts 
of  memory.     When  the  imagination  is  permitted  to 


VISION,  OR  THE  IDEA  139 

work  in  this  haphazard,  uncontrolled  fashion,  we  call 
it  phantasy.  Aladdin's  lamp,  the  Lilliputians  in 
"Gulliver's  Travels,"  the  yesterdays  and  tomorrows 
of  "Alice  in  Wonderland,"  are  all  delightful  crea- 
tions of  the  phantasy,  that  is,  of  an  imagination  over 
which  reason  deliberately  held  a  very  loose  rein. 

When  a  man  attacks  a  new  problem,  whether  in 
science  or  in  business,  he  must  use  all  the  powers  of  his 
mind.  He  is  like  a  traveler  who  must  find  the  best 
possible  route  thru  a  wilderness.  His  imagination 
is  the  telescope  with  which  he  now  and  then  brings 
distant  vistas  near  to  him.  His  judgment  aids  him  in 
finding  the  points  of  the  compass.  His  memory  keeps 
records  of  the  paths  he  has  traveled  and  helps  him  to 
return  if  he  strays.  His  will  keeps  him  pressing  for- 
ward. 

We  camiot  measure  or  estimate  the  importance  of 
imagination.  We  know  how  much  our  physical  com- 
fort and  well-being  depend  upon  our  eyesight,  and 
what  a  fearful  calamity  blindness  is,  but  the  loss  of 
our  inner  vision,  our  imagination,  would  be  a  greater 
calamity  than  the  loss  of  physical  eyesight. 

8.  Idea  and  ambition. — Many  men  seem  quite  sat- 
isfied with  life  if  only  they  have  a  job  which  yields 
them  what  they  consider  a  decent  livelihood.  After 
school  days  are  over,  they  strive  for  no  further  mental 
development,  but  are  content  to  devote  what  leisure 
they  have  to  social  pleasures,  sports  and  amusements 
of  various  kinds.     They  like  to  feel  certain  that  their 

job  is  secure.     They  may  grumble  now  and  then  be- 

i— 11 


140  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

cause  their  salary  is  not  raised,  for  their  family  ex- 
penses increase  as  time  goes  on,  but  they  give  no 
thought  to  self-improvement  or  to  plans  for  bettering 
their  lot.  Such  men  lack  ambition.  They  bear  a 
very  close  resemblance  to  animals  of  the  field;  they 
have  a  definite  number  of  wants  and  are  fairly  con- 
tent when  those  wants  are  gratified. 

Ambition  is  a  purely  human  quality,  not  possible 
in  the  slightest  degree  in  a  beast.  It  makes  man  dis- 
satisfied with  his  present  status  and  eager  to  -climb  to 
a  higher  level.  It  is  the  child  of  vision  and  desire. 
The  imagination,  aided  by  judgment  and  memory, 
creates  for  us  a  more  attractive,  an  ideal  environment, 
and  pictures  in  it  a  stronger,  wiser  and  happier  self. 
It  contains  for  us  all  the  promise  of  Canaan  to  the 
Israelites  and  beckons  to  us  with  such  compelling 
charm  that  we  struggle  toward  it  with  all  our  energy 
and  will.  Sacrifices,  fatigue,  hunger,  misfortune, 
criticism  by  our  friends,  the  cajolery  of  temptation 
— all  these  things  mean  nothing  to  us  and  fail  to 
stop  us.  Then  we  are  men  of  purpose,  of  ambition. 
An  idea  has  taken  possession  of  us. 

A  man  who  lacks  vision  will  never  feel  the  spur  of 
great  ambition.  He  may  greatly  desire  riches  and 
honor,  but  he  cannot  earn  them,  altho  by  miserly  meth- 
ods he  may  accumulate  a  small  fortune. 

It  is  quite  possible  for  a  man  to  possess  vision  and 
yet  not  be  ambitious.  He  perceives  the  ideal,  but  does 
not  feel  irresistibly  drawn  toward  it.  He  is  content  to 
admire  it  or  to  talk  about  it  to  others.     A  man  of  this 


VISION,  OR  THE  IDEA  141 

type  usually  lacks  red  blood,  energy  and  will ;  he  may 
get  his  greatest  pleasures  out  of  reveries  and  reflec- 
tion and  care  little  about  achievement.  These  men 
sometimes  become  poets  and  philosophers  and  write 
books  which  stimulate  the  imaginations  of  thousands 
of  other  men,  thus  bringing  to  others  the  beauty  of 
the  ideal  and  the  energy  and  push  of  ambition.  Tho 
they  do  not  harness  purpose  with  their  visions,  they 
give  something  invaluable  to  humanity.  But  the  men 
of  clear  vision  who'  neither  struggle  to  attain  their 
ideal,  nor  give  to  others  any  mental  stimulus,  are  mere 
dreamers,  intellectual  drones. 

9.  Idea  and  enthusiasm. — The  man  of  real  enthu- 
siasm puts  his  soul  into  his  work.  He  does  so,  not 
because  he  loves  his  work  per  se,  but  because  the  idea 
back  of  the  work  has  made  him  captive.  A  so-called 
matter-of-fact  man,  a  man  who  prides  himself  upon 
taking  things  as  they  are,  who  has  no  use  for  theories, 
dreams  or  speculations  of  any  kind,  is  never  an  en- 
thusiast; in  fact,  he  scorns  enthusiasm  as  a  stigma  of 
an  ill-balanced  mind.  He  is  sure  that  an  ounce  of 
common  sense  is  worth  a  ton  of  enthusiasm.  No 
great  ideal  ever  tempts  him  from  his  moorings.  He 
may  be  a  faithful,  industrious,  intelligent  worker  all 
his  days,  but  his  career  in  business,  or  in  a  profession, 
will  be  mediocre,  commonplace,  uninteresting.  Such 
men  often  make  the  best  of  neighbors  and  citizens,  but 
they  do  nothing  to  make  Mother  Earth  a  better  place 
on  which  to  live. 

Enthusiasm  is  the  most  dynamic  of  all  human  quali- 


1  fcS  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

ties.  In  a  sense  it  is  the  ideal  descended  on  earth 
to  battle  with  realities.  Men  instinctively  recognize 
its  high  origin  and  easily  surrender  to  its  influence. 
That  is  why  we  say  that  enthusiasm  is  contagious.  A 
salesman  not  charged  with  enthusiasm  could  not  sell 
a  cake  of  ice  in  the  tropics.  A  business  organization 
lacking  enthusiasm  does  not  get  out  of  its  men  50 
per  cent  of  their  potential  efficiency.  The  enthusiasm 
of  a  manufacturer  of  funeral  caskets,  or  of  an  under- 
taker, is  a  bit  gruesome,  but  it  is  a  necessary  part  of 
his  equipment  if  he  is  to  succeed. 

10.  Vision  and  will. — The  will  is  a  complex  mental 
faculty,  and  weakness  of  will  often  has  its  origin  in 
indecision,  in  the  reluctance  of  the  judgment  to  make 
choice  between  two  alternatives.  A  man  who  thinks 
clearly  and  feels  strongly  should  have  a  strong  will. 
A  man  of  high  purpose  born  of  clear  vision  will  have 
an  aggressive  will.  The  man  of  muddled  vision,  on 
the  contrary,  wrorks  without  a  clear-cut  purpose  in 
view,  and  is  liable  to  be  weak  of  will. 

Therefore,  if  we  would  strengthen  our  will-power, 
we  must  cultivate  our  imagination  and  encourage  it 
to  build  for  us  an  ideal  that  will  bring  our  whole  be- 
ing into  action.  The  man  who  wants  something  with 
his  whole  soul,  wills  irresistibly.  He  whose  desire  or 
purpose  is  drab,  lackadaisical,  sentimental,  has  the 
will  of  a  jelly  fish. 

The  business  man  must  have  vision,  not  merely  that 
he  may  plan  new  undertakings  and  provide  for  the 
contingencies  of  the  future,  but  that  he  may  work  un- 


VISION,  OR  THE  IDEA  143 

der  the  stimulus  of  a  great  purpose  and  develop  a  will 
which  does  not  quail  before  opposition. 

11.  Genius. — I  will  not  undertake  to  define  or  de- 
scribe the  genius  whose  creations  in  art  or  literature 
captivate  all  men,  possessing  beauty,  power  and  charm 
far  beyond  the  reach  of  ordinary  mortals.  But  a  few 
words  about  the  genius  in  business  are  worth  while. 
The  business  genius  is  not  an  unfamiliar  figure  in  the 
United  States.  His  touch  is  magical.  Every  enter- 
prise he  undertakes  meets  with  astonishing  success. 
He  makes  new  and  startling  moves,  but.  he  always 
wins.  Like  James  J.  Hill  he  builds  a  railroad  across 
a  desert,  or  like  Pierpont  Morgan  he  consolidates  the 
steel  plants  of  the  country,  and  pays  not  the  slightest 
attention  to  critics — and  wins.  Often  these  men  of 
genius  in  business  have  begun  work  with  a  school  edu- 
cation that  was  meager  and  pitiful.  Yet  they  do  not 
blunder,  they  judge  wisely,  they  decide  promptly,  and 
they  succeed. 

Foolish  people  often  attribute  the  success  of  such 
men  to  luck  or  good  fortune.  Now  luck  is  a  negli- 
gible factor  in  the  success  of  any  man,  but  in  the  busi- 
ness success  of  such  men  as  James  J.  Hill,  Pierpont 
Morgan  and  John  D.  Rockefeller,  luck  played  abso- 
lutely no  part  at  all.  They  earned  their  success  be- 
cause they  planned  and  fought  for  it. 

The  business  genius  is  a  man  whose  intellectual  pow- 
ers— his  judgment,  imagination,  memory,  will — are 
all  so  strongly  and  finely  balanced  that  they  grasp  a 
business  situation  and  solve  a  business  problem  with 


1U  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

the  rapidity  of  intuition.  Schopenhauer  denned  the 
genius  as  being  the  man  who  could  see  the  truth  with- 
out the  aid  of  logical  processes,  whereas  ordinary 
mortals,  "like  moles  in  the  earth,"  grope  about  in  dark- 
ness. Whatever  the  philosophical  explanation  may 
be,  it  is  a  fact  that  certain  exceptional  men  in  business, 
as  well  as  in  the  arts,  possess  powers  which  place  them 
in  a  class  by  themselves.  They  are,  in  current  expres- 
sion, supermen. 

12.  The  fixed  idea. — A  strong  faculty  perverted  or 
wrongly  used  is  necessarily  harmful.  Hence  a  man 
of  vigorous  imagination,  if  his  judgment  happens  to 
be  biased  by  prejudice,  religion  or  convention,  espe- 
cially if  he  is  conceited  or  obstinate,  sometimes  clings 
to  an  ideal  with  the  devotion  of  a  fanatic  long  after 
he  should  have  learned  by  experience  that  it  is  in- 
adequate and  imperfect.  He  is  a  victim  of  what  the 
French  call  the  "idee  fixe" — the  "fixed  idea/' 

If  a  man  gazes  blankly  for  a  certain  length  of  time 
at  any  object,  seeking  to  think  of  nothing  at  all,  he 
may  pass  into  a  hypnotic  state  and  temporarily  lose 
control  of  his  mental  faculties,  accepting  as  true  and 
pleasant  whatever  may  be  suggested  to  him  as  being 
true  and  pleasant.  Certain  natures  are  similarly  im- 
pressed by  prolonged  contemplation  of  an  idea  in 
which  they  believe.  It  may  be  a  curious  religious 
faith,  or  an  idea  that  death  awaits  them  at  a  certain 
age,  or  the  idea  that  imminent  peril  threatens  society 
from  Mormonism  or  from  free  masonry.  They  read 
no  books  except  those  in  sympathy  with  their  own 


VISION,  OR  THE  IDEA  145 

views,  and  in  the  course  of  time  become  known  in  their 
communities  as  people  who  have  queer  views  on  this  or 
that  subject.  They  are  victims  of  the  fixed  idea.  On 
all  other  subjects  they  may  be  perfectly  matter-of-fact 
and  sane,  but  when  they  talk  of  their  pet  idea  you 
discover  at  once  that  they  are  in  a  state  of  fascination 
or  semi-hypnotism,  their  judgment  no  longer  work- 
ing normally. 

When  the  "idee  fixe"  appears  in  business,  it  plays 
havoc  with  profits.  In  a  Massachusetts  village,  a 
country  store  was  kept  during  the  Civil  War  times  by 
a  man  of  very  positive  convictions.  Under  no_circum- 
stances  would  he  ever  sell  any  article,  however  shop- 
worn, for  less  than  the  cost.  After  the  war  was  over 
the  prices  of  nearly  all  articles  declined  rapidly  as  the 
greenback  appreciated.  Our  storekeeper  found  his 
shelves  stocked  with  goods  which  could  not  be  sold  at 
the  prices  he  had  paid  for  them.  He  refused  to  sell 
at  all,  and  when  his  stock  was  put  up  at  auction  after 
his  death,  the  town  roared  with  laughter  as  the  auc- 
tioneer brought  forth  article  after  article  which  had 
been  in  stock  for  over  ten  years. 

The  "idee  fixe"  is  a  symptom  of  mental  disorder. 
If  you  fear  that  one  of  your  friends  is  falling  a  victim 
to  it,  do  not  argue  with  him, — that  will  make  him 
worse.  Keep  him  from  solitude.  Give  him  plenty 
of  company  and  plenty  of  other  things  to  talk  and 
think  about,  so  that  his  mind  may  recover  its  poise. 

13.  Vision  at  work. — The  reader's  own  imagination 
or  memory  has  doubtless  already  supplied  him  with 


146  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

illustrations  of  the  way  in  which  vision  helps  a  man  in 
business,  and  perhaps  of  instances  in  which  failure  has 
come  because  imagination  had  not  done  its  part.  Yet 
a  few  illustrations  here  may  help  to  clear  the  reader's 
thought. 

In  the  seventies,  when  the  telephone  was  invented, 
most  people  could  see  in  it  nothing  but  a  toy.  It  was 
just  an  interesting  plaything,  and  capitalists  saw  little 
chance  for  profit  in  its  exploitation,  but  the  imagina- 
tion of  its  inventor  pictured  it  in  every  business  house 
and  in  every  residence,  and  heard  the  voices  of  people 
talking  with  their  friends  miles  away,  or  arranging 
and  closing  a  business  negotiation  in  a  few  minutes; 
miles  of  travel  and  personal  interviews  no  longer  be- 
ing necessary.  He  persevered,  and  lived  to  see  his 
vision  become  reality. 

Not  many  years  ago  the  automobile  was  a  luxury 
enjoyed  only  by  the  rich.  Henry  Ford's  vision  pic- 
tured to  him  the  automobile's  appeal  to  men  of  ordi- 
nary means,  and  found  that  appeal  so  strong  that  he 
at  once  began  to  build  automobiles  that  could  be  sold 
at  a  price  within  the  reach  of  the  average  man,  and  for 
several  years  he  had  no  competitors  in  his  field. 

A  man  who  had  had  some  experience  as  a  janitor 
in  New  York  City  was  out  of  a  job  and  came  to  a 
prosperous  friend  for  advice.  Said  his  friend:  "If 
you  saw  a  new  apartment  house  lacking  a  janitor, 
could  you  imagine  yourself  in  that  house  performing 
the  services  of  janitor  acceptably?"  The  man  replied, 
of  course,  that  he  certainly  could.     "Then  take  a  walk 


VISION,  OR  THE  IDEA  14,7 

and  find  some  new  apartment  houses,  the  owners  are 
probably  looking  for  janitors." 

The  first  delivery  wagon  carrying  groceries  from 
the  store  to  the  customers  was  born  of  imagination  or 
vision.  It  added  quite  a  sum  to  the  expense  account, 
and  the  critics  predicted  that  the  grocer  would  have 
to  raise  his  prices  and,  hence,  that  he  would  lose  trade, 
but  the  grocer's  vision  was  correct.  It  was  backed  by 
sound  judgment. 

The  advertiser  who  can  picture  the  advantages  or 
the  charm  of  his  article  to  his  prospective  customer 
wins  him  much  more  quickly  than  if  he  relied  entirely 
on  argument  or  pragmatical  description. 

A  certain  well-known  and  successful  public  speaker 
always  carefully  prepares  and  rehearses  his  speech 
in  his  room,  and  the  speech  he  delivers  seldom  varies 
by  so  much  as  a  word  from  the  one  he  rehearses.  A 
friend  once  expressed  surprise  to  him  that  in  com- 
plete solitude  illustrations  should  occur  to  him  so 
pat  that  they  seemed  to  be  born  of  the  occasion. 
"When  I  get  up  my  speeches,"  he  replied,  "I  am  not 
alone;  my  audience  is  before  me  then  just  as  clearly 
as  when  I  am  actually  delivering  the  speech." 

A  man  out  of  a  job,  or  one  who  is  looking  for  a 
better  position,  must  use  his  imagination.  Knowing 
his  own  capabilities  he  must  picture  to  himself  the 
services  he  can  render  in  different  lines  of  business. 
Has  he  learned  certain  good  methods  that  are  not  in 
general  use  in  business  houses?  Then  he  should  go 
forth  and  rouse  the  imaginations  of  employers  by 


148  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

picturing  to  them  the  improvements  he  can  make. 

The  imagination  of  some  man  connected  with  the 
American  Sugar  Refinery  Company,  picturing  the 
universal  dread  of  bacteria,  devised  a  paper  wrap  for 
each  individual  piece  of  sugar. 

But  illustrations  are  not  necessary.  The  reader 
of  this  book  will  find  himself  surrounded  by  ideas  that 
have  become  realities — the  alarm  clock  which  wakes 
him  in  the  morning,  the  reenforced  heels  of  his  stock- 
ings, possibly  the  rubber  heels  on  his  shoes,  his  foun- 
tain pen,  his  safety  razor  and  shaving  stick,  his  union 
suit  of  underwear,  his  encyclopedia  in  thin  paper  and 
flexible  covers,  the  safety  pin — if  he  is  a  married  man 
— his  dollar  watch,  his  typewriter  rubber  keys,  and 
so  on  ad  infinitum.  The  reader  may  object  that  these 
are  all  inventions,  and  that  they  mean  nothing  to  him 
because  he  is  not  an  inventor.  But  every  new  idea 
is  an  invention.  Taylor,  the  man  who  introduced 
new  systems  into  industry,  was  an  inventor.  Pier- 
pont  Morgan,  who  created  the  United  States  Steel 
trust,  was  an  inventor.  The  department  store  is  an 
invention.  The  rural  free  delivery  of  mail  is  an  in- 
vention.   The  mail-order  house  is  an  invention. 

All  business  progress  is  the  result  of  invention,  and 
imagination  is  the  inventor. 

REVIEW 

Do  you  believe  that  imagination  can  be  made  of  value  to 
the  business  man?  How?  Does  the  average  business  man 
share  this  opinion? 

If  you  believe  in  the  statement  that  the  ideal  is  the  highest 


VISION,  OR  THE  IDEA  149 

product  of  the  imagination,  how  can  you  make  it  serve  you  to 
greatest  advantage? 

What  value  have  vision  and  judgment?  How  do  they  differ 
from  phantasy? 

What  is  ambition,  and  when  does  it  best  serve  its  purpose? 

Of  two  men,  one  enthusiastic,  the  other  matter-of-fact,  which 
do  you  believe  will  make  the  greater  success  in  business?     Why? 

What  is  the  best  way  to  strengthen  the  will? 


CHAPTER  VII 

PERSONAL  EFFICIENCY 

1.  Energy,  time  mid  space. — Thruout  this  book, 
without  having  defined  the  word  "efficiency,"  I  have 
tried  to  point  out  the  various  ways  in  which  busi- 
ness men  can  make  themselves  more  efficient.  The 
word  comes  from  the  Latin  efficio  (eoc-facio),  which 
means  "I  do  thoroly,  completely,  triumphantly." 
Generally  speaking,  a  man  is  efficient  in  his  business 
when  he  devotes  his  energies  to  its  tasks  with  such 
wisdom  that  all  are  properly  and  successfuly  done. 

To  get  a  clear  idea  of  efficiency  let  us  think  of  man 
as  a  bundle  of  energy,  mental  and  physical,  which 
must  expend  itself  subject  to  the  laws  of  space  and 
time,  the  highest  degree  of  efficiency  being  attained 
when  a  given  amount  of  energy  is  so  wisely  directed 
that  a  task  is  completed  in  the  least  possible  space 
and  after  the  lapse  of  the  least  possible  time. 

The  essence  of  efficiency  is  the  economy  of  energy, 
time  and  space.  When  any  one  of  these  three  is 
wrasted,  or  consumed  without  a  desired  result,  we  have 
loss  of  efficiency.  A  Yankee  farmer's  wife  of  sev- 
enty-five years  ago,  having  a  multitude  of  tasks  to 
perform  and  often  being  without  help,  aimed  more 
or  less  consciously  at  efficiency.     She  kept  the  churn 

150 


PERSONAL  EFFICIENCY  151 

and  cheese-press  near  the  pantry  where  the  milk  was 
stored,  thus  saving  steps;  when  she  went  down  cellar 
to  get  butter  or  apples,  she  took  with  her  something 
that  had  to  be  returned  to  the  cellar,  again  saving 
steps;  and  when  her  morning's  work  was  done  and 
she  could  rest,  she  sat  down  and  braided  straw  hats 
or  knitted  stockings,  thus  saving  time.  In  those  old 
days,  when  women's  work  was  much  heavier  than  now, 
the  word  "efficiency"  was  unknown,  but  the  house- 
wife who  took  useless  steps,  either  coming  or  going, 
or  let  any  time  pass  without  something  done,  was  in 
ill  repute  as  being  lazy  and  shiftless. 

Today  efficiency  is  most  talked  of  among  engineers. 
They  think  of  it  in  technical  terms  as  the  maximum 
of  result  produced  by  the  minimum  of  energy.  An 
engine  which  utilizes  only  20  per  cent  of  the  energy 
in  the  coal  consumed  is  said  to  be  20  per  cent  efficient, 
80  per  cent  of  the  energy  having  been  wasted.  A  ma- 
chine 100  per  cent  efficient  has  never  yet  been  in- 
vented, and  probably  never  will  be,  but  to  reduce  the 
waste  of  energy  in  industrial  processes  is  a  problem 
upon  which  the  engineer  must  always  be  at  work. 

When  one's  store  of  energy  is  infinite  or  in  excess 
of  all  possible  needs,  any  loss  or  waste  of  energy  is 
left  out  of  account  in  the  measurement  of  efficiency. 
From  the  human  point  of  view  nature  is  a  prodigal 
in  the  use  of  energy.  The  sunlight  and  the  rain 
which  she  pours  upon  the  earth,  the  oxygen  and  the  ni- 
trogen with  which  she  envelops  it,  might  conceivably 
be  utilized  to  keep  a  thousand  earths  fit  for  human  and 


158  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

animal  life.  The  human  eye,  one  of  nature's  most 
wonderful  mechanisms,  is  said  by  physicists  to  be  much 
less  than  100  per  cent  efficient.  But  nature's  store  of 
energy  is  infinite  and  she  has  directed  its  flow  thru  the 
countless  ages  of  evolution  with  such  marvelous  wis- 
dom that  we  find  everywhere  perfect  adjustment  of 
means  to  ends.  She  did  not  give  us  greater  efficiency 
of  the  eye,  simply  because  we  did  not  need  it. 

In  business,  human  energy  is  the  driving  powrer,  and 
the  supply  of  it  is  limited.  In  measuring  the  effi- 
ciency of  a  business  man,  therefore,  we  must  take  into 
account  his  waste  of  energy  as  well  as  his  waste  of 
space  and  time. 

2.  Know  thyself. — Socrates,  the  Greek  philosopher, 
held  that  a  man  took  the  first  step  toward  knowl- 
edge when  he  recognized  the  fact  that  he  knew  noth- 
ing, and  that  the  second  step  must  be  to  study  him- 
self. 

Socrates  was  right,  but  very  few  people  know  what 
he  really  meant.  Most  of  us  do  much  more  idle 
thinking  about  ourselves  than  is  good  for  us;  w7hat 
we  would  do  if  we  were  rich,  how  brave  we  would  be 
if  our  courage  could  only  be  dramatically  tested,  what 
great  things  we  would  accomplish  if  we  only  had  op- 
portunity, what  fine  and  useful  books  we  wrould  write 
if  we  could  only  travel,  how  much  good  we  would  do 
in  the  world  if  we  only  had  power.  But  all  this  is 
just  dreaming  and  romancing  about  oneself.  It  is 
not  studying  ourselves. 


PERSONAL  EFFICIENCY  153 

The  object  of  study  is  to  get  a  knowledge  of  the 
laws  which  phenomena  obey.  We  study  astronomy, 
for  example,  to  discover  the  laws  which  control  the 
movements  of  the  planets  in  the  heavens.  We  study 
chemistry  in  order  that  we  may  know  the  laws  govern- 
ing the  combinations  of  material  elements.  As  was 
explained  in  the  Introduction,  we  understand  no  phe- 
nomenon until  we  know  the  laws  to  which  it  is  sub- 
ject. To  study  yourself,  therefore,  means  that  you 
must  think  of  yourself  impersonally  and  endeavor 
to  find  out  what  you  are  capable  of  doing  and  what 
motives  impel  you  to  action.  Many  a  man  knows 
less  about  himself  than  he  does  about  his  horse  or  his 
dog.  A  spirited  horse  cannot  be  safely  driven  by  a 
man  who  does  not  know  him.  Most  of  us  study  our 
friends  more  than  we  do  ourselves  and  could  pass  a 
better  examination  on  their  qualities  than  we  could 
on  our  own.  A  man  is  too  prone  to  think  that  he 
can  accept  himself  as  a  highly  finished  product  and 
that  this  world  would  be  a  paradise  if  only  other  peo- 
ple were  better. 

You  are  a  very  complicated  machine,  and  you  are 
the  only  person  that  can  drive  it,  or  in  any  way  im- 
prove it.  Your  friends  may  know  a  great  deal  about 
your  powers,  mental  and  physical,  and  about  your  de- 
ficiencies and  efficiencies,  but  they  cannot  make  you 
over.  If  you  want  your  machine  to  be  in  the  best 
possible  running  order  and  to  do  the  work  for  which 
it  is  best  fitted,  you  must  know  it  more  thoroly  than 


154  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

you  do  your  horse  and  dog.  Once  knowing  your 
powers  and  their  limitations,  you  will  then  be  able  to 
set  for  yourself  a  goal  which  you  can  reach. 

3.  Be  thyself. — Ambitious  young  writers  are  al- 
ways advised  against  imitating  the  style  of  their  fav- 
orite author,  and  they  usually  do  not  follow  the  ad- 
vice. They  want  to  write  like  Stevenson,  like 
Dickens,  like  Thackeray,  like  George  Eliot,  or  like 
Thomas  Carry le,  and  they  cannot  understand  why 
they  should  not  strive  to  write  like  their  model  or 
ideal;  yet  no  writer  ever  achieved  distinction  who  did 
not  put  himself  into  his  books  and  create  his  own 
style. 

In  all  our  human  relations,  a  certain  degree  of  hu- 
mility of  the  right  kind  is  an  asset  of  value.  Even 
when  a  man  knows  that  he  is  unfit  for  a  high  position 
that  is  offered  him  by  chance  or  thru  friendship,  his 
pride  or  love  of  approbation  may  impel  him  to  accept 
the  coveted  honor  or  position.  If  so,  he  lacks  that 
true  and  honorable  humility  which  makes  a  man 
frankly  decline  positions  of  honor  for  which  he  knows 
himself  to  be  unfitted,  whether  his  unfitness  be  due 
to  temperamental  weaknesses  or  to  his  lack  of  expe- 
rience and  knowledge.  True  humility  permits  a  man 
to  strive  only  for  that  for  which  he  is  prepared.  The 
humility  of  Uriah  Heep  was  an  odious  counterfeit 
of  the  real  quality. 

No  man  lacks  humility  because  he  believes  he  is 
destined  to  do  things  worth  while  in  this  world.  That 
is  exactly  what  every  young  man  should  believe  about 


PERSONAL  EFFICIENCY  155 

himself.  But  if  he  wants  his  faith  in  himself  to  be 
vindicated  by  events,  he  must  be  content  to  be  him- 
self and  to  develop  to  the  utmost  those  faculties  in 
which  he  specially  excels.  If  he  seeks  to  make  him- 
self like  somebody  else,  like  some  man  whom  he  hap- 
pens to  know  and  admire,  or  whose  position  in  the 
world  he  regards  with  envy,  he  will  fail  to  make  the 
most  of  his  own  powers  and  will  be  a  second-rater. 
A  man  who  has  studied  himself  knows  best  what  he 
can  do  and  will  achieve  most  if  his  constant  aim  is 
self-development  and  self-expression.  That  is  true 
whether  he  writes  poetry,  builds  railroads,  or  sells 
newspapers. 

I  do  not  mean  by  the  foregoing  that  a  man  can 
learn  nothing  from  a  study  of  the  achievements  and 
characters  of  other  men.  That  would  be  manifestly 
untrue.  The  great  generals  of  today  have  learned 
much  from  their  studies  of  the  campaigns  of  Napoleon 
and  Julius  Caesar.  Every  young  American  today 
can  find  encouragement  and  positive  help  in  the  auto- 
biography of  Benjamin  Franklin  and  in  the  lives  of 
such  men  as  Andrew  Carnegie,  James  J.  Hill  and 
Philip  D.  Armour.  But  there  will  never  be  a  sec- 
ond Napoleon  or  a  second  James  J.  Hill.  When  the 
name  of  a  great  general  does  suggest  to  us  that  of 
Napoleon,  we  find  him  to  be,  not  an  imitator  of  Na- 
poleon, but  a  man  who  has  learned  from  a  study  of 
Napoleon's  campaigns  some  of  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples in  accordance  with  which  a  battle  should  be 
fought.     Our  next  great  railroad  builder  may  make 

1—12 


156  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

us  recall  the  work  of  James  J.  Hill,  but  that  next 
builder  will  not  be  an  imitator  of  Hill  or  of  any  other 
man. 

"But,"  some  reader  will  say,  "I  have  not  the  brains, 
nor  the  opportunity,  nor  the  necessary  capital.  I  am 
just  an  ordinary  man  and  must  be  content  with 
ordinary  success."  No  man  has  a  right  to  talk  or 
feel  that  way.  There  is  in  every  man  the  power  to 
do  something  worth  while.  In  each  man's  breast,  so 
to  speak,  there  is  a  hidden  diamond.  It  is  his  busi- 
ness to  find  it,  for  nobody  else  can.  That  diamond  is 
his  best  self,  the  self  that  he  is  capable  of  being.  If 
he  finally  becomes  that  best  self  he  will  successfully 
do  the  work  he  aspires  to  do  and  receive  a  satisfactory 
reward. 

Personal  efficiency  demands  that  a  man  be  himself 
and  not  seek  to  be  like  somebody  else. 

4.  Temperament. — Artists  are  popularly  supposed 
to  have  a  monopoly  of  temperament ;  on  that  account 
people  excuse  them  for  any  kind  of  eccentricity  of 
dress  or  behavior.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  all 
of  us  have  our  peculiarities  of  temperament,  and  these 
must  be  taken  into  account  when  we  are  planning  our 
careers  or  the  day's  program. 

By  "temperament"  I  mean  our  natural  disposition, 
that  something  within  us  which  determines  how  we 
will  feel  and  act  at  various  times  and  under  various 
circumstances.  Some  men  seem  to  have  been  born 
with  a  sunny  and  cheerful  disposition,  others  with  a 
sour  and  gloomy  one.     Some  are  emotional  and  sen- 


PERSONAL  EFFICIENCY  157 

sitive,  while  others  are  stoical  and  thick-skinned. 
Some  are  naturally  systematic,  logical  and  orderly, 
while  others  seem  incapable  of  appreciating  the  im- 
portance of  order  and  system,  and  yet  often  accom- 
plish great  results. 

Men  differ  quite  as  much  as  dogs.  No  dog  fancier 
would  think  of  training  a  water  spaniel  to  do  the 
work  of  a  pointer  or  a  coach  dog.  Temperament  or 
disposition  seems  to  be  fundamental  and  unchange- 
able. A  man  who  wishes  to  make  himself  100  per 
cent  efficient  must  certainly  take  it  into  account. 

A  man  of  the  highly  mental  and  nervous  tempera- 
ment should  manifestly  not  enter  upon  a  career  in 
which  physical  endurance  or  muscular  power  is  es- 
sential to  efficiency.  A  man  who  dislikes  intellectual 
effort,  but  loves  physical  activity,  should  choose  a 
calling  in  which  muscular  dexterity  and  power  are  a 
real  asset.  The  man  who  instinctively  dreads  loneli- 
ness or  monotony,  but  who  will  work  with  tremen- 
dous energy  if  he  has  companions  and  variety,  should 
choose  a  business  which  will  give  him  plenty  of  hu- 
man contact.  The  man  more  given  to  meditation  and 
philosophy  than  to  action  should  not  assume  business 
responsibilities.  He  may  be  a  fairly  good  routine 
worker  in  business,  like  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  the 
great  American  novelist,  or  like  Charles  Lamb,  one 
of  England's  choicest  essayists,  but  he  will  not  really 
be  a  business  man. 

If  a  man  studies  himself  he  will  know  his  own  tem- 
perament and  be  in  a  position  to  choose  that  career  for 


158  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

which  he  is  personally  best  fitted  and  to  fit  himself 
for  it  by  the  right  kind  of  training.  What  his  train- 
ing ought  to  be  depends  entirely  upon  the  peculiarities 
of  his  temperament.  A  standard  training  suitable 
for  all  is  impossible.  There  can  be  no  such  thing  as 
a  school  of  efficiency.  Kadi  man  must  be  his  own 
schoolmaster. 

5.  The  efficient  mind. — It  must  be  evident  that  a 
man  cannot  do  all  that  has  been  prescribed  in  the 
foregoing  sections  unless  he  has  trained  his  mind  to 
be  an  obedient  servant.  The  whole  aim  of  education 
on  the  intellectual  side  should  be  to  develop  the  power 
of  clear  and  honest  thinking.  A  man  whose  mind  de- 
livers to  him  judgments  perverted  by  passion  or  prej- 
udice has  an  inefficient  mind.  His  first  duty  is  one 
of  mental  discipline.  He  must  correct  his  mental 
bias  and  make  his  mind  look  straight  into  the  heart 
of  things. 

It  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  convince  a  man  that 
his  mental  processes  are  not  entirely  normal.  I 
have  often  tried  to  do  it — sometimes  with  college  pro- 
fessors— and  have  invariably  failed.  And,  of  course, 
it  is  almost  paradoxical  to  expect  the  man  to  dis- 
cover the  fact  himself.  That  is  one  of  the  reasons 
why  it  is  so  important  that  a  country's  educational 
system  be  of  the  right  kind,  and  that  our  public  school 
teachers  seek  to  develop  their  pupils'  judgment  and 
reasoning  power  as  well  as  to  store  their  memories 
with  information  about  matters  geographical  and  his- 
torical. 


PERSONAL  EFFICIENCY  159 

To  be  on  the  safe  side  a  man  seeking  to  increase 
his  efficiency  should  assume  that  his  mind  needs  all 
the  training  that  he  can  possibly  give  it.  Perhaps 
he  cannot  go  to  a  school  or  to  a  university,  but  that 
is  not  necessary.  Scientific  books  are  numerous  and 
cheap.  Let  him  take  up  some  science  and  thoroly 
master  it.  Let  him  think  as  he  reads,  and  so  disci- 
pline his  mind  in  the  pursuit  of  truth.  No  man  is 
too  old  to  take  up  a  new  science  with  interest,  and 
no  man's  mind  is  so  fine  and  efficient  that  further 
study  and  discipline  will  not  improve  it.  The  man 
who  lets  his  mind  lie  fallow  for  long  intervals  will 
often  fall  below  par  in  efficiency. 

6.  Purpose. — The  man  who  drifts  and  lets  himself 
slip  along  with  the  current  because  he  thus  is  spared 
the  pain  of  willing  and  of  overcoming  obstacles, 
never  reaches  a  harbor.  If  we  are  to  think  of  life  as 
a  sea  upon  which  destiny  has  cast  us,  surely  we  must 
use  reason  as  our  compass,  and  then  decide  upon  the 
port  toward  which  we  shall  steer.  If  we  row  aim- 
lessly without  a  compass  we  shall  merely  circle  about 
our  starting  point. 

A  man  without  a  purpose  is  as  useless  as  a  ship 
without  a  rudder.  He  accomplishes  nothing.  His 
efficiency  is  zero.  He  may  be  very  busy  and  active 
and  possess  all  the  external  attributes  of  the  hustler, 
but  his  activity  is  like  that  of  a  romping  dog  or  of  a 
two-year-old  child — useless  because  aimless. 

Find  out  what  a  man's  purpose  is  in  life  and  you 
have  the  measure  of  his  soul.     Has  he  followed  Em- 


160  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

erson's  advice  and  "hitched  his  wagon  to  a  star"? 
Then  you  need  not  worry  about  his  brains  or  his  will, 
lie  may  be  driving  a  poor  team,  but  the  chances  are 
that  lie  will  reach  his  destination  on  time.  When  pur- 
pose has  once  taken  possession  of  a  man's  soul,  he 
does  not  hesitate  to  use  the  whip. 

A  man's  efficiency  depends  absolutely  upon  the 
strength  of  his  purpose.  Systems,  time-cards,  stop- 
watches, records,  drills,  calculated  economy  of  time 
and  effort — all  these  things  are  worthless  fiddle-faddle 
not  making  for  a  single  atom  of  efficiency  unless  a 
man's  spirit  is  blazing  with  purpose.  Morally  the 
purpose  may  be  bad  or  good,  it  makes  no  difference. 
The  purpose  must  be  there  and  it  must  own  the 
man's  soul.  Then  he  will  push  on  toward  the  de- 
sired end  with  all  his  energy,  choosing  the  straightest 
path  intuitively.  He  will  need  no  coaching  in  those 
methods  and  devices  of  artificial  efficiency  which  have 
been  invented  for  the  listless  and  purposeless.  His 
efficiency  will  be  the  product  of  his  own  soul  and  will 
be  a  law  unto  itself. 

It  does  not  follow  that  a  man  should  give  no  heed 
to  the  various  external  details  of  efficiency.  It  goes 
without  saying  that  he  should  order  his  life  and  busi- 
ness so  that  his  time  and  strength  shall  not  be  frittered 
away,  his  health  injured,  or  his  hours  of  play  and 
recreation  reduced ;  that  in  his  business  he  should  con- 
centrate, and  not  spend  ten  hours  a  day  at  his  desk 
when  five  hours  of  effort  more  wisely  directed  might 
do  the  day's  work.     The  so-called  short-cuts  and  la- 


PERSONAL  EFFICIENCY  161 

bor-saving  and  time-saving  devices  of  the  efficiency 
experts  are  valuable  and  must  not  be  ignored,  but 
the  secret  of  personal  efficiency  does  not  lie  in  them. 
It  is  in  the  man  himself,  in  his  purpose,  in  his  ideals, 
in  the  heart  of  his  desire.  A  man  of  weak  will 
and  feeble  desire  is  doomed  to  be  inefficient.  As  a 
Methodist  would  say,  he  must  be  "converted"  before 
he  can  be  saved  and  become  a  real  man. 

7.  The  dominant  trait. — "That  is  all  very  fine 
about  having  a  purpose,"  I  hear  one  of  my  younger 
readers  say,  "but  how  am  I  to  get  the  purpose?" 
That  is  a  legitimate  question,  and  I  must  admit  that 
I  may  not  be  able  to  give  a  satisfactory  answer  in  a 
page  or  two.  It  brings  up  that  old  and  difficult  prob- 
lem, "What  shall  be  my  career?  What  business  shall 
I  prepare  for?  Am  I  now  in  the  business  for  which 
I  am  best  suited?" 

To  be  most  efficient  in  business  or  in  any  calling  a 
man  should  be  in  a  position  which  gives  him  oppor- 
tunity for  the  employment  of  any  special  ability  he 
possesses.  A  dominant  trait  will  usually  be  found 
in  every  man's  character.  Some  men  have  a  passion 
for  order  and  system  and  are  miserable  in  the  midst 
of  confusion.  Men  of  this  kind  often  excel  in  mathe- 
matics. In  business  they  are  usually  at  their  best 
as  systematizers  or  organizers,  and  if  they  have  tact 
they  make  good  office  managers.  Details  do  not  es- 
cape their  attention. 

Other  men  have  vivid,  active  imaginations  and  arc 
forever   planning   and   scheming.     They    care   little 


16S  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

about  system  and  order,  and  do  not  like  details  or 
drudgery  of  any  kind,  but  if  they  have  common  sense 
and  are  good  judges  of  men,  they  associate  them- 
selves with  men  of  opposite  traits  and  are  successful. 

A  man  of  cheerful,  friendly  disposition,  whose  mem- 
ory is  his  strongest  mental  faculty,  has  the  essential 
traits  of  a  good  salesman. 

.Advertising  offers  a  rich  field  for  the  man  in  whom 
a  trained  imagination  and  sound  common  sense  will 
work  in  the  same  harness. 

A  man  whose  strongest  trait  is  dogged  persistence 
or  perseverance,  even  tho  he  has  but  ordinary  intel- 
lectual gifts,  is  likely  to  succeed  in  almost  any  busi- 
ness. He  should  not  waste  time  trying  to  decide 
what  his  career  shall  be,  but  should  seize  the  first  op- 
portunity to  get  into  business. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  a  young  man  to  worry  much 
about  the  kind  of  business  for  which  he  is  best  fitted, 
the  one  that  will  rouse  him  to  his  highest  effort  and 
in  which  he  will  be  most  efficient.  If  he  has  studied 
himself  thoroly  and  given  himself  the  best  possible 
education  and  preparation,  he  should  seize  the  best 
opportunity  available  at  the  start  and  then  trust  a 
little  to  fate.  Every  year  of  experience  in  business 
will  add  to  his  knowledge  of  himself,  as  well  as  of 
business,  and  soon  the  career  of  his  choice  will  stand 
clearly  before  him. 

A  man's  first  purpose,  therefore,  should  be  to  make 
himself  fit  for  business;  then  his  second  purpose,  to 
discover  the  business  for  which  he  is  best  fitted;  then 


PERSONAL  EFFICIENCY  163 

that  crowning  purpose,  to  realize  his  ideal  in  that 
business. 

8.  The  head  and  the  heels. — There  is  a  story  of  an 
Irish  maid  who  answered  a  "general  housework"  ad- 
vertisement, and  when  asked  what  wages  she  wished, 
replied:  "That  depends,  mum;  five  dollars  if  I  have 
to  think,  three  dollars  if  I  don't."  Her  heels  were 
cheaper  than  her  head. 

As  I  have  had  occasion  to  say  several  times  in  this 
book,  thinking  is  work  and  the  average  man  declines 
to  think  unless  the  situation  compels  him  to.  If  a 
man  desires  to  increase  his  efficiency,  however,  he  must 
at  all  times  be  willing  to  think  and  plan.  He  must 
think  as  he  plans  the  program  of  the  day,  and  still 
more  as  he  plans  the  business  program  for  the  week 
or  the  month.  Before  the  end  of  his  business  year 
he  must  think  intensely  about  plans  for  enlarging  or 
bettering  his  business  during  the  coming  year.  What- 
ever his  position  in  business,  whether  that  of  manager 
or  of  subordinate,  he  will  not  be  really  efficient  unless 
he  thinks  and  plans  in  order  that  there  may  be  im- 
provement in  his  work.  In  other  words,  a  man  de- 
siring to  be  efficient  must  be  constantly  seeking  to 
"make  his  head  save  his  heels." 

As  everybody  knows,  the  general  of  an  army  who 
enters  a  battle  without  having  carefully  thought  out 
a  plan  of  campaign  is  pretty  certain  to  meet  defeat. 
A  man  who  builds  a  factory  without  having  first  care- 
fully considered  the  costs,  the  supply  of  labor  and 
his  marketing  problem,  can  succeed  only  by  a  lucky 


164  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

accident.  In  the  case  of  big  enterprises  the  necessity 
for  thinking-  and  planning  is  evident.  It  is  in  the 
small  affairs  of  business,  in  the  daily  routine,  that  men 
get  into  a  rut  and  jog  along  as  if  no  further  think- 
ing and  planning  could  be  of  any  use.  Efficiency 
requires  a  mind  alert,  always  on  the  lookout  for  bet- 
ter ways  of  doing  even  small  things. 

9.  Habit. — Habit  may  be  a  man's  enemy  or  his 
friend.  If  a  man  desires  to  be  what  is  called  a  "top- 
notcher"  in  efficiency,  he  must  make  habit  his  ever 
faithful  ally. 

A  habit  is  the  result  of  repetition.  It  is  habit  that 
makes  most  of  us  right-handed.  Any  boy  can  quickly 
become  left-handed  if  he  has  the  will  to  do  with  the 
left  hand  what  he  formerly  has  done  with  his  right. 
Eating  three  meals  a  day  is  a  habit  with  most  people ; 
when  the  dinner  hour  comes  they  eat  whether  they 
are  really  hungry  or  not,  and  they  usually  think  they 
are  hungry.  Walking  itself  is  a  habit,  acquired  in 
childhood  after  almost  infinite  practice. 

When  we  have  done  anything  in  a  certain  way  so 
often  that  we  automatically  do  it  whenever  the  oc- 
casion arises,  we  have  acquired  a  habit — we  can  now 
do  one  more  thing  without  conscious  thought  be- 
forehand. Since  there  are  many  things  which  we 
do  day  after  day,  it  is  evidently  desirable  that  we 
find  the  best  way  of  doing  each  and  do  it  the  best 
way  regularly  until  finally  the  doing  becomes  a  habit. 
A  business  man,  to  be  efficient,  should  have  the  habit 
of    punctuality,    of    attending    to    correspondence 


PERSONAL  EFFICIENCY  165 

promptly,  of  going  to  bed  and  getting  up  at  regular 
hours,  of  daily  exercise,  of  courtesy  to  all  with  whom 
he  deals,  of  tact,  or  consideration  for  others,  of  even 
temper,  of  square-dealing,  of  concentration.  In 
other  words,  he  inust  have  before  him  an  ideal  and 
get  into  the  habit  of  acting  just  as  that  ideal  would 
act  in  his  place.  Only  in  this  way  can  he  form  habits 
which  are  his  friends  and  helpers. 

Bad  habits  are  the  product  of  indolence.  Most 
people  do  not  like  to  think,  and  they  do  things  off- 
hand in  what  seems  to  them  the  easiest  way.  A  man 
who  learns  to  play  golf  without  an  instructor  must 
think  and  practise  a  good  deal  before  he  can  even 
grip  his  club  properly.  The  best  way  of  doing  any 
thing  does  not  always  seem  at  first  the  easiest  or  the 
most  natural.  We  learn  those  best  ways  only  by 
thinking  and  practice,  and  that  means  work.  Hence 
most  of  us  go  about  handicapped  by  several  bad 
habits,  losing  time  and  wasting  energy. 

Many  of  our  habits  are  formed  unconsciously. 
Hence  a  man  who  would  know  himself  must  be  care- 
ful to  scrutinize  that  part  of  his  conduct  which  springs, 
as  it  were,  from  his  second  nature.  He  must  find 
out  his  bad  habits  and  correct  them. 

It  takes  a  strong  will  to  master  habit.  When  a 
man  has  done  a  thing  the  wrong  way  so  often  that 
the  performance  of  the  task  is  automatic,  his  very 
soul  seems  to  rebel  when  one  seeks  to  make  him 
change.  His  intellect  will  argue  that  his  method  is 
for  him  better  than  the  standard  method,  for  he  is 


166  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

used  to  it.  It  is  possible  that  after  a  certain  age 
man  cannot  change  his  habits  for  the  better.  The 
particular  year  in  which  a  man's  habits  are  recog- 
nized as  a  fixed  and  unchangeable  part  of  him  must 
be  regarded  as  the  beginning  of  his  old  age,  and  we 
are  not  now  particularly  concerned  about  the  future  of 
his  career. 

Since  it  requires  a  strong  will  to  smother  a  bad 
habit  and  develop  a  new  and  better  one,  there  is  here 
a  chance  for  the  man  aiming  at  efficiency  to  "kill  two 
birds  with  one  stone."  If  he  will  strive  persistently 
to  correct  some  of  his  bad  habits,  however  harmless 
they  may  seem  to  him,  he  will  at  least  have  the  satis- 
faction of  strengthening  his  will. 

10.  Environment. — Unconsciously  we  are  all  imi- 
tators. If  a  Kentucky  youth  of  twenty  should  move 
to  Boston  and  live  there  twenty  years,  his  Southern 
accent  would  be  lost  in  the  East  wind.  An  American 
youth  who  spends  a  few  years  in  a  European  uni- 
versity comes  home  with  manners  that  startle  his  na- 
tive townsmen,  but  his  imported  manners  last  only 
for  a  season  or  two.  If  a  young  man  begins  his 
business  career  in  a  concern  whose  methods  are  slip- 
shod, bustling  and  noisy,  he  will,  in  spite  of  himself, 
acquire  some  very  bad  habits.  It  is  most  important, 
therefore,  that  a  young  man's  first  business  connec- 
tion be  with  a  house  that  is  run  on  first-class  busi- 
ness principles.  The  character  and  quality  of  his  as- 
sociates are  to  him  of  much  more  consequence  than 
the  nature  of  the  business. 


PERSONAL  EFFICIENCY  167 

The  ideal  environment  for  a  man  who  wishes  to 
grow  in  character  and  efficiency  must  be  one  in  which 
business  is  done  in  the  best  possible  way,  and  in  which 
his  own  abilities  are  often  put  to  serious  test.  The 
efficient  man  does  not  look  for  easy  jobs.  The  more 
hard  work  he  gets  the  more  he  smiles.  He  has  no 
interest  in  the  clock.  When  the  man  above  him  is  off 
duty  from  sickness  or  for  any  other  reason,  he  is  glad 
of  the  chance  to  do  double  work.  Difficulties,  obsta- 
cles, perplexities  do  not  make  him  sick.  The  harder 
the  problems  he  has  to  solve,  the  greater  his  pleasure 
and  the  more  rapid  his  growth. 

11.  Poise,  or  self-possession. — A  man  who  knows 
himself,  who  has  learned  the  best  way  of  doing  a 
thing,  who  thinks  before  and  while  he  acts,  is  not  a 
loud-voiced,  bustling  swashbuckler  in  business.  He 
need  not  seem  to  be  a  hustler,  or  to  be  in  any  way 
leading  the  strenuous  life.  He  will  have  such  com- 
mand of  himself  and  such  confidence  in  his  ability 
to  do  the  right  thing  that  his  tasks  will  be  done  easily 
and  without  apparent  effort. 

Poise  is  an  exceedingly  important  trait.  It  means 
perfection  of  balance,  the  harmonious  adjustment  of 
all  the  faculties.  The  highest  degree  of  efficiency  is 
impossible  without  it. 

When  a  man  lacks  poise  he  may  get  excited  and 
blunder  thru  hasty  judgment,  or  he  may  lose  his 
temper  and  for  hours  be  nervously  unfit  in  conse- 
quence, or  in  the  presence  of  important  customers  he 
may  be  embarrassed,  all  his  faculties  momentarily  go- 


168  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

ing  on  a  strike,  or  he  may  foolishly  seek  to  conceal  a 
mistake  and  save  himself  from  blunder,  or  he  may 
show  his  pique  and  disappointment  if  another  hap- 
pens to  get  credit  for  his  good  work.  The  man  of 
perfect  poise  does  not  worry  about  non-essentials. 
His  concern  is  the  work  he  has  to  do.  Everything 
else  is  of  minor  consequence.  What  matters  it  if  now 
and  then  another  gets  credit  which  really  belongs  to 
him,  or  if  he  is  bidden  to  do  something  which  properly 
is  the  task  of  another,  or  if  he  is  inconvenienced  by 
the  postponement  of  his  vacation,  or  if  he  fails  to 
receive  a  hoped-for  increase  of  salary,  or  if  his  im- 
mediate superior  has  a  bad  temper  and  is  now  and 
then  harsh  and  unjust?  Thru  it  all  he  keeps  his  bal- 
ance, is  courteous,  even-tempered  and  everlastingly  at 
work.  He  knows  that  his  future  lies  in  his  work  and 
that  the  petty  little  annoyances  of  today  are  of  no 
more  consequence  than  the  "thankyouma'ams"  on  a 
country  road. 

12.  Weak  spots  in  character. — I  have  said  that  a 
man  must  rely  most  on  that  faculty  in  which  he  spe- 
cially excels.  Yet  he  should  not  neglect  the  weak 
places  in  his  character.  A  man  naturally  disorderly 
and  unsystematic  should  cultivate  a  love  of  order  and 
system.  He  may  not  see  the  charm  or  advantage 
of  order.  He  may  be  order-blind,  as  some  people  are 
color-blind.  He  must  recognize  his  weakness  and 
seek  to  correct  it.  Let  him  begin  in  a  small  way;  for 
example,  be  orderly  and  systematic  in  the  treatment 
of  his  mail. 


PERSONAL  EFFICIENCY  169 

If  a  man  is  a  confirmed  procrastinator  he  is  the  vic- 
tim of  a  vice  which  he  positively  must  cure.  The  man 
who  puts  off  until  tomorrow  what  ought  to  be  done 
today  kills  business.  Procrastination  and  efficiency 
are  born  enemies. 

A  man  may  be  of  a  very  sociable  disposition  and 
waste  time  visiting  and  gossiping  with  his  associates ; 
he  wastes  not  only  his  own  time,  but  that  of  others. 
In  business  hours  only  business  should  be  talked  about 
or  thought  about. 

Some  men,  otherwise  excellent  in  all  respects,  are 
long-winded  talkers.  So  marvelous  is  their  flow  of 
words  that  they  take  five  minutes  to  answer  a  ques- 
tion which  should  be  answered  in  ten  seconds.  A 
man  of  that  sort,  having  discovered  his  weakness, 
should  practise  the  art  of  condensation.  It  would  do 
him  good  to  read  a  column  article  in  a  newspaper  and 
then  put  the  gist  of  it  into  five  short  sentences.  Busi- 
ness men  have  no  time  for  unnecessary  or  unimpor- 
tant details.  The  really  efficient  business  man  does 
not  even  see  them. 

Truthfulness,  candor,  courtesy,  tactfulness,  health 
— these  five  things  and  all  those  qualities  which  are 
mentioned  in  the  chapter  on  "The  Efficient  Business 
Man,"  it  should  go  without  saying,  must  be  striven  for 
by  the  man  seeking  to  increase  his  personal  efficiency. 

It  is  well  to  remember  these  words  of  Bacon:  "A 
man's  nature  runs  either  to  herbs  or  weeds.  There- 
fore let  him  seasonably  water  the  one  and  destroy  the 
other." 


170  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 


REVIEW 

How  would  you  define  efficiency? 

What  did  Socrates  really  mean  when  he  said  "Know  thyself"? 

How  should  temperament  affect  a  person  in  choosing  a  career? 

What  do  you  understand  by  purpose  ?  What  is  its  value,  meas- 
ured in  terms  of  efficiency? 

What  habits  should  a  business  man  cultivate,  and  how  can  he 
acquire  them  ? 

How  is  a  good  environment  helpful  to  any  one  in  business? 

From  your  experience  show  why  a  business  man  with  poise 
tends  to  be  successful. 

Give  illustrations  of  how  the  weak  spots  in  character  can  be 
corrected. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

HEALTH 

1.  The  strain  of  business. — Excepting  physicians, 
few  people  not  actively  engaged  in  business  realize 
what  a  strenuous  game  it  is.  Even  the  small  busi- 
ness man,  whom  mediocre  success  will  satisfy,  cannot 
escape  the  terrific  pull  and  strain.  It  may  be  quite 
as  hard  for  him  to  make  a  profit  of  $2,000  a  year  as 
it  is  for  a  man  of  larger  type  to  clean  up  $25,000. 
Each  is  surrounded  by  competitors  of  about  his  own 
size  who  are  doing  their  utmost  to  make  his  profit 
problem  a  difficult  one.  Each  will  have  his  cares  and 
worries  and  defeats,  and  the  little  man  will  groan 
under  his  load  quite  as  much  as  the  bigger  man  does 
under  his. 

We  all  know  that  worry  and  anxiety  are  enemies  of 
good  health.  It  is  an  old  saying  that  it  is  not  work 
but  worry  that  kills.  Unhappily,  it  is  impossible  for 
the  ambitious  man  ever  to  be  entirely  free  from  oc- 
casions for  worry  and  anxiety.  Big  orders  may  be 
coming  in  and  large  profits  seem  in  sight,  but  the 
newspapers  are  full  of  reports  of  labor  troubles. 
"Will  my  men,  knowing  of  the  increase  in  my  busi- 
ness, strike  at  the  critical  moment  and  demand  higher 
wages?"     This  is  a  very  serious  question  in  the  minds 

1—18  171 


172  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

of  all  business  men  with  large  pay-rolls.  Perhaps  a 
man  needs  more  capital  in  order  to  take  care  of  his 
growing  business,  and  has  difficulty  in  getting  it;  or 
a  note  may  be  near  maturity  and  some  of  his  best 
customers  are  unexpectedly  slow  with  their  remit- 
tances, so  that  he  must  get  a  larger  credit  at  his 
bank.  In  business,  man  is  exposed  to  countless  such 
sources  of  worry  and  anxiety.  Some  of  them  are 
foreseen  and  dreaded.  Others  come  upon  him  unex- 
pectedly and  may  give  him  sleepless  nights. 

Evidently  the  business  man  must  take  care  of  his 
health.  If  he  is  physically  weak  or  unfit  he  will 
sooner  or  later  break  down.  In  this  chapter  we  wilJ 
discuss  some  of  the  simple  rules  and  signs  of  health, 
and  certain  common  causes  of  weakness  and  disease. 

No  argument  should  be  needed  to  convince  any 
man  that  health  and  a  good  physique  are  business 
assets.  If  a  reader  is  sceptical,  let  him  attend  a  meet- 
ing of  successful  business  men  in  one  of  our  large 
cities,  or  get  statistics  of  the  physical  measurements 
of  our  foremost  bank  and  railroad  presidents.  The 
men  of  power  in  Wall  Street  are  nearly  all  big  and 
strong.  The  leading  merchants  and  manufacturers 
of  New  York  City,  as  they  gather  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  or  of  the  Merchants'  As- 
sociation, make  an  impression  of  physical  vigor  and 
energy  that  could  not  be  equalled  by  a  convention  of 
farmers. 

2.  What  is  a  strong  body? — The  physician  feels  of 
a  patient's  pulse  to  learn  the  rate  of  his  heartbeat. 


HEALTH  173 

The  average  American  estimates  his  strength  by  the 
size  of  his  biceps,  a  muscle  of  the  upper  arm.  It  is 
taken  for  granted  that  a  man  with  well-developed 
arm  muscles  has  a  strong  body.  Yet  from  the  point 
of  view  of  health  and  endurance,  a  strong-armed  man 
may  be  a  weakling. 

When  I  say  that  a  business  man  should  have  a 
strong  body  I  do  not  mean  that  he  should  have  the 
muscles  of  an  athlete.  His  arms  need  not  show  any 
signs  of  unusual  strength.  In  fact,  in  no  part  of  his 
body  need  there  be  a  remarkable  development  of 
muscle,  and  yet  the  entire  body  may  deserve  to  be 
called  strong  because  of  its  perfect  condition. 

A  strong  body  is  one  in  which  all  the  muscles,  be- 
cause in  daily  use,  perform,  their  functions  properly, 
giving  the  necessary  support  to  the  vital  organs. 

The  muscles  of  the  arm  are  comparatively  unim- 
portant and  can  be  left  to  take  care  of  themselves 
without  fear  of  harmful  consequences.  The  most  im- 
portant muscles  of  the  body  are  often  most  neglected 
by  men  seeking  to  improve  their  health ;  these  are  the 
muscles  of  the  neck,  of  the  chest,  of  the  abdomen,  and 
of  the  feet.  If  these  muscles  are  weak,  the  body's 
power  of  resistance  will  be  weak,  so  that  diseases  of 
various  kinds  will  find  entrance. 

A  well-known  university  professor  a  few  years  ago 
was  suffering  severely  from  what  his  doctor  pro- 
nounced heart  disease.  He  went  to  the  German 
health  resorts  and  found  temporary  relief.  A  num- 
ber of  American  specialists  examined  him  and  gave 


174  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

various  prescriptions,  but  his  heart  grew  worse.  Fi- 
nally he  was  examined  by  a  physician  who  had  been 
an  athlete  in  college  and  who  knew  by  experience  the 
sinister  effects  that  follow  the  weakening  of  various 
muscular  tissues.  After  an  examination  lasting  about 
five  minutes,  this  doctor  said  to  his  learned  patient: 

My  dear  sir,  your  heart  disease  is  all  below  your  waist 
line.  You  have  been  eating  too  much.  Your  abdominal 
muscles  are  very  weak,  and  your  stomach,  when  you  stand,  is 
two  inches  below  where  it  ought  to  be.  We  will  artificially 
support  your  abdomen  ;  then  you  must  eat  and  exercise  prop- 
erly and  you  will  be  all  right. 

At  the  time  the  professor  was  unable  to  walk  a  block 
without  intense  suffering.  A  week  from  that  day 
he  climbed  five  flights  of  stairs  to  have  an  hour's  visit 
with  an  old  chum.  He  has  followed  the  athletic  doc- 
tor's advice  about  exercise  and  now  has  a  fairly  strong 
body. 

A  man  who  has  passed  his  fortieth  year  and  has 
permitted  his  abdominal  muscles  to  weaken  thru  dis- 
use is  liable  not  merely  to  attacks  of  "heart  disease," 
but  to  various  aches  and  ills  that  are  traceable  to  im- 
perfect digestion. 

The  human  neck  is  a  conduit  for  the  body's  trunk 
lines  connecting  the  brain  with  the  vital  organs.  Its 
muscles  should  be  firm  and  healthy  in  order  that  the 
nerves  and  circulatory  system  may  be  sheathed  and 
protected  against  injury. 

Strong  chest  muscles  keep  the  shoulders  back  and 
make  deep  breathing  easy.     When  those  muscles  are 


HEALTH  175 

weak  a  man's  diaphragm  is  usually  also  weak,  and  he 
falls  an  easy  victim  to  stomach,  throat  and  lung 
troubles. 

3.  Sound  nerves. — There  are  many  diseases  of  the 
nervous  system,  and  most  of  them  are  difficult  of  treat- 
ment. It  is  not  necessary  for  the  layman  to  know 
anything  about  these  diseases.  All  he  need  know  is 
that  a  man  who  keeps  his  body  strong,  or  in  good  con- 
dition, will  not  suffer  from  nervous  diseases. 

The  business  man  needs  a  sound  nervous  system. 
If  his  nerves  are  in  bad  condition,  whether  because  of 
dissipation  or  auto-intoxication,  he  will  be  irritable 
when  he  ought  to  be  pleasant,  restless  when  he  ought 
to  be  in  repose,  unsteady  and  excitable  when  he  ought 
to  be  calm.  Bad  nerves  have  shipwrecked  many  a 
business. 

Physicians  agree  that  the  health  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem is  bound  up  with  the  general  health  of  the  body. 
To  get  good  nerves  and  keep  them,  a  man  must  live 
right  and  give  his  body  as  conscientious  care  as  his 
chauffeur  gives  to  his  automobile.  He  must  see  to 
it  that  his  body  is  clean  inside  and  out,  that  every 
muscle  is  in  a  position  to  function  properly.  Of 
course,  if  a  man  is  suffering  from  a  nervous  disease, 
he  should  consult  his  physician. 

Civilized  man  has  probably  abused  the  foot  more 
than  any  other  part  of  the  body.  Few  people  know 
that  proper  care  of  the  foot  is  essential  to  health.  The 
foot  carries  the  entire  weight  of  the  body  during  a 
large  part  of  a  man's  waking  hours.     It  should,  there- 


176  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

fore,  be  so  shod  that  all  its  muscles  and  joints  may- 
act  easily  and  naturally.  Yet  most  men  wear  the 
shoes  that  fashion  prescribes,  and  in  consequence  suf- 
fer from  flat  foot,  fits  of  nerves  and  unaccountable 
irritability.  Neurasthenia,  from  which  so  many 
women  suffer,  some  physicians  attribute  to  the  arti- 
ficial, unnatural  shapes  of  women's  shoes.  The  shoes 
are  artificial  because  they  are  not  built  along  the  lines 
of  the  foot ;  hence  walking  or  standing  is  painful  and 
the  nerves  are  racked.  However,  no  woman,  if  she  is 
wearing  a  pretty  shoe,  will  admit  that  it  does  not  per- 
fectly fit  her  foot.  But  a  business  man  must  have 
sense  enough  to  let  his  feet  be  all  day  just  as  God  made 
them;  otherwise  he  will  have  "nerves." 

4.  Relation  of  body  to  mind. — Psychologists  hold 
that  all  the  operations  of  the  mind  are  the  reflex  of 
changes  taking  place  in  the  brain.  A  normal,  healthy 
mind  implies  a  normal,  healthy  brain.  If  a  man  has 
imperfect  digestion  his  supply  of  fresh  blood  is  in- 
adequate and  all  parts  of  the  body  are  below  normal; 
the  brain  has  less  than  its  normal  supply,  and  the  mind 
cannot  think  clearly  or  vigorously.  The  proverbial 
gloom  or  pessimism  of  the  confirmed  dyspeptic  has 
its  origin  in  the  half-starved  condition  of  the  brain. 

The  strength  of  the  mind  and  of  the  will  are  depend- 
ent upon  the  health  of  the  body.  A  business  man  who 
thinks  he  can  neglect  his  physical  health  and  yet  be 
as  shrewd,  far-seeing  and  resolute  as  ever,  is  the  victim 
of  a  serious  delusion.  A  perfectly  well  man  easily 
finds  his  way  out  of  difficulties  that  would  floor  him  if 


HEALTH  177 

he  were  sick  or  only  half  well.  The  man  who  is  not  in 
good  physical  condition  seldom  gives  birth  to  a  new 
idea  in  business.  Not  only  does  he  lack  imagination, 
but  he  lacks  also  the  grit  and  resolution  necessary  to 
carry  a  new  idea  into  effect. 

5.  Health  must  be  earned. — Health  is  not  a  gift. 
It  must  be  earned  by  the  sweat  of  a  man's  brow.  In 
no  other  way  can  a  man  get  and  keep  a  healthy  body 
and  a  sound  mind. 

Most  people  act  as  if  they  thought  that  nature  owed 
them  strong  and  healthy  bodies.  When  they  do  not 
feel  well  they  blame  the  weather,  or  the  cook,  or  the 
bad  air  in  their  office;  and  some  seem  to  think  them- 
selves the  victims  of  a  wrathful  Providence.  That 
health  is  within  the  reach  of  every  normal  man — one 
not  already  suffering  from  organic  disease — is  ab- 
solutely true.  The  average  man  when  out  of  order 
goes  to  his  doctor  and  expects  to  get  medicine  which 
will  make  him  well,  but  no  doctor  can  make  a  man 
really  well.  All  the  doctor  can  do  for  a  sick  man  is 
to  help  nature  remove  some  of  the  poisons  and  ob- 
structions which  he  has  allowed  to  accumulate  in  his 
body.  If  a  man  really  wants  health  he  must  get  it 
by  his  own  effort.  His  ancestors  could  not  give  it  to 
him  and  he  cannot  give  it  to  his  descendants.  Health 
is  a  reward  which  kindly  nature  gives  us  when  we 
obey  her  laws. 

It  is  a  fundamental  psychological  truth  that  man 
has  to  earn  all  the  fine  things  he  enjoys.  Pleasures 
not  earned  do  not  please.     Appetite  not  earned  is  the 


178  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

forerunner  of  indigestion.  The  listless,  idle,  inactive 
man  or  woman  is  the  prey  of  ennui,  disgust  with  life, 
boredom.  The  child  who  gets  the  pleasures  and 
toys  it  wants  merely  by  asking  for  them,  gets  little 
joy  out  of  them,  not  merely  because  it  is  sated,  but 
because  the  parents  have  violated  a  law  of  nature 
and  sought  to  give  it  that  which  really  cannot  be 
given. 

"If  you  want  knowledge,"  said  Ruskin,  "you  must 
toil  for  it;  if  food,  you  must  toil  for  it;  and  if  pleas- 
ure, you  must  toil  for  it." 

Health  is  one  of  the  most  precious  of  all  posses- 
sions, but,  like  all  the  other  good  things  of  life,  it 
must  be  earned.  In  the  next  few  sections  we  shall 
discover  how  to  earn  it.  The  task  is  easy  and  the 
reward  certain. 

6.  Exercise. — The  word  exercise  suggests  dumb- 
bells, Indian  clubs,  walking,  running,  vaulting  and  va- 
rious outdoor  games.  All  these  are  forms  of  exer- 
cise and  a  man  should  indulge  in  some  of  them  as 
much  as  possible,  especially  those  which  he  enjoys; 
but  exercise  as  a  means  of  earning  health  need  in- 
clude no  games,  or  long  walks,  or  hours  in  the  gymna- 
sium, or  weights,  or  apparatus. 

The  purpose  of  exercise  for  health  is  to  give  all  the 
muscles  of  the  body  a  chance  to  use  their  strength,  for 
an  unused  muscle  weakens.  It  is  not  necessary  here 
to  prescribe  any  set  of  exercises.  The  reader  can  get 
for  a  nominal  price  at  almost  any  bookstore  or  from 
any  dealer  in  sporting  goods  a  little  book  with  com- 


HEALTH  179 

plete  instructions.  Or  he  can  send  to  Washington 
and  get  the  "setting-up"  exercises  prescribed  for  the 
United  States  Army. 

It  does  not  matter  much  what  set  of  exercises  a  man 
adopts  if  only  they  bring  into  play  all  the  muscles  of 
the  body.  That  is  absolutely  essential.  In  no  other 
way  can  the  human  machine  be  kept  clean  inside  and 
out;  and  cleanliness  of  that  kind  is  the  secret  of  health. 
Furthermore,  the  exercise  must  be  regular.  At  least 
half  an  hour  a  day  should  be  given  to  it,  and  not  a  day 
should  be  skipped.  If  a  man  is  traveling,  let  him 
invent  substitutes  for  his  home  exercises  and  so  let  his 
muscles  know  that  he  is  not  forgetting  them.  If  he 
rides  in  a  Pullman  car,  he  can  exercise  in  his  berth.1 

Many  people  declare  positively  that  they  cannot 
bear  to  do  lonely  exercises  in  their  rooms.  That  is  all 
nonsense.  They  are  merely  making  an  excuse  for 
their  laziness.  They  do  not  realize  that  setting-up 
exercises,  persisted  in  month  after  month,  will  give 
them  far  more  pleasure  than  they  get  from  their  break- 
fast. The  most  confirmed  coffee  drinker,  if  he  could 
be  persuaded  to  do  the  setting-up  exercises  regularly 

i  The  Spalding's  Athletic  Library  contains  some  excellent  little 
pamphlets  on  health  and  exercise.  One  entitled  "Tensing  Exercises"  by 
Edward  B.  Warman  will  prove  valuable  to  any  business  man. 

The  "setting-up"  exercises  mentioned  in  this  section  are  found  in  a 
little  book  issued  by  the  War  Department,  entitled  "Manual  of  Physical 
Training  for  use  in  the  United  States  Army."  It  can  be  bought  from 
the  Superintendent  of  Documents  at  Washington;  price  50  cents. 

Sanford  Bennett  of  California  has  invented  some  ingenious  exercises 
which  can  be  done  while  in  bed  or  in  the  berth  of  a  Pullman  car.  He 
describes  them  in  a  book  entitled  "Old  Age — Its  Cause  and  Prevention," 
published  by  the  Physical  Culture  Publishing  Company. 


180  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

for  a  month,  would  soon  discover  to  his  surprise  that 
he  did  not  care  whether  he  had  a  cup  of  coffee  at  break- 
fast or  not. 

Some  people  object  that  they  cannot  spare  the  time 
for  setting-up  exercises  because  they  have  to  leave 
their  homes  so  early  to  get  to  their  places  of  business 
on  time.  If  they  have  been  rising  at  seven  and  are  ad- 
vised to  rise  half  an  hour  earlier  in  order  to  get  time 
for  exercise,  they  groan.  They  are  sure  they  do  not 
get  sleep  enough  even  tho  they  stay  in  bed  until  seven 
o'clock,  and  it  is  very  difficult  to  convince  them  that  a 
half -hour  of  exercise  will  do  them  more  good,  body  and 
soul,  than  that  last  half-hour  in  bed.  They  do  not 
know  that  a  half-hour  of  exercise,  persisted  in  daily, 
would  make  them  sounder  sleepers,  so  that  they  would 
feel  better  after  seven  hours  in  bed  than  they  now  do 
after  eight. 

If  you  really  want  health  there  must  be  no  ex- 
cuses. You  must  work  for  it.  Everybody  has  time 
enough. 

If  you  can  spend  half  an  hour  in  a  gymnasium  play- 
ing handball  with  a  chum,  so  much  the  better;  then 
you  will  not  need  the  "setting-up"  exercises.  That  is 
the  way  a  successful  New  York  restaurateur  keeps  in 
the  pink  of  condition.  He  rises  at  six,  plays  hand- 
ball for  half  an  hour,  breakfasts  at  seven,  works  until 
midnight,  and  is  up  again  the  next  day  at  six.  He  is 
keeping  well,  is  making  money,  and  says  he  enjoys 
life. 

Exercise  at  least  twenty  minutes  every  morning, 


HEALTH  181 

and  so  vigorously  that  you  perspire;  then  your  bath, 
then  your  coffee — if  you  want  it. 

Begin  tomorrow  morning  and  keep  it  up  one  month. 
Then  you  will  know  more  about  health  than  you  could 
possibly  learn  from  any  book. 

7.  Play. — For  several  thousand  years  the  human 
race  has  had  a  chance  to  study  itself  and  think  about 
its  needs  and  what  is  good  for  it.  Yet  many  people 
today  think  that  play  is  a  waste  of  time.  You  will 
hear  them  say,  "I  never  play  cards  or  billiards.  I 
never  had  any  time  to  throw  away  on  such  things." 

In  the  normal  man  the  love  of  play  is  instinctive. 
When  a  man  no  longer  has  any  taste  for  play,  old  age 
has  got  him.  So  long  as  a  man  loves  play  and  hails 
with  joy  every  chance  to  play,  old  age  dare  not  go  near 
him. 

Play,  fun  and  laughter  are  agents  of  health.  They 
promote  digestion,  soothe  the  nerves,  stimulate  the  cir- 
culation, give  power  to  the  heart.  While  you  are  at 
play  those  parts  of  your  brain  which  you  are  using  con" 
stantly  in  business  or  at  your  work  are  relaxed  and 
in  repose.  Other  parts  of  the  brain  are  active  and  the 
whole  body  is  being  charged  with  new  vigor.  When 
your  play  is  done  you  can  sleep  without  dreaming  of 
your  business  difficulties,  and  the  next  day  the  chances 
are  that  you  will  get  much  more  business  done  than 
you  would  have  if  you  had  kept  your  nose  constantly 
on  the  grindstone.  A  man  who  does  not  play  cannot 
be  100  per  cent  efficient,  for  much  of  the  time  he  works 
with  a  tired  mind. 


182  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

There  are  countless  ways  of  playing  and  each  man 
must  select  those  he  enjoys  most.  It  is  usually  wise 
for  a  man  to  have  different  modes  of  play  and  relaxa- 
tion. Golf  is  at  present  a  popular  sport  and  has  un- 
doubtedly saved  the  lives  of  many  business  men,  be- 
sides increasing  their  efficiency,  but  the  man  whose 
only  sport  is  golf  is  not  utilizing  his  play  instinct  to 
the  greatest  advantage.  Any  game  played  to  the 
exclusion  of  others — whether  golf,  tennis,  bridge, 
whist  or  billiards — does  not  always  yield  the  maximum 
of  benefit.  The  law  of  variety  holds  in  play  as  well 
as  in  other  forms  of  human  pleasure. 

Many  forms  of  play  exercise  the  muscles,  make  us 
perspire  and  breathe  deeply  of  fresh  air,  and  in  that 
way  are  beneficial  to  health,  but  the  second  value  of 
play  lies  in  the  effect  it  has  upon  the  mind  and  those 
organs  of  which  we  are  normally  unconscious,  such  as 
the  ductless  glands,  the  liver,  the  stomach  and  the 
heart.  If  a  man  spends  half  an  hour  a  day  at  the 
setting-up  exercises,  it  does  not  matter  much  whether 
his  play  is  indoors  or  out  in  the  open. 

8.  Bight  mental  attitude. — Much  has  been  written 
in  recent  years  about  the  influence  of  the  mind  upon 
the  body,  and  some  extremists  go  so  far  as  to  hold  that 
all  disease  has  its  origin  in  the  mind  and  can  be  healed 
by  some  process  of  right  thinking. 

We  need  not  here  discuss  the  merits  or  demerits  of 
any  of  the  modern  cults  based  upon  the  power  of  the 
mind  over  the  body.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  that 
the  mind  and  the  body  are  intimately  connected  and 


HEALTH  183 

that  each  in  a  mysterious  way  is  dependent  upon  the 
other.  As  I  said  in  a  former  paragraph,  laughter 
promotes  health,  and  anything  which  promotes  health 
is  an  enemy  of  disease.  It  stirs  to  activity  those  little 
things  within  us  which  the  physicians  call  "anti-bod- 
ies," whose  business  it  is  to  police  our  insides  and  club 
into  oblivion  all  hostile  bacilli.  If  this  theory  of  the 
physicians  is  correct,  a  man  in  a  laughing,  cheerful, 
kindly  mood  has  an  army  of  active  anti-bodies  at  work 
in  him,  and  is  less  liable  to  be  sick  or  to  become 
fatigued  or  exhausted  than  if  his  mood  were  one  of 
discontent,  grief  or  despair. 

A  physician  tells  of  an  interesting  experiment  made 
upon  a  cat.  Fifteen  minutes  after  the  cat  had  eaten 
generously  of  raw  beef  it  was  placed  under  the  X-ray, 
and  its  stomach  was  seen  working  vigorously  and 
rhythmically  while  Tabby  purred  contentedly.  Then 
a  door  was  opened  and  a  dog  admitted  into  the  room. 
Instantly  the  cat's  stomach  became  rigid;  and  it  did 
not  resume  its  activities  until  ten  minutes  after  the 
dog  had  been  ejected.  Here  is  an  illustration  of  the 
effect  of  fear  upon  the  unconscious  and  automatic 
activity  of  a  most  important  organ. 

It  is  certainly  important  for  a  man  to  get  the  right 
mental  attitude  not  only  toward  his  own  business  but 
toward  the  world  in  general.  Let  him  convince  him- 
self that  this  is  a  good  world,  that  living  in  it  is  worth 
while,  that  he  is  going  to  enjoy  it  as  much  as  possible, 
and  that  he  is  going  to  help  others  to  enjoy  it,  for 
that  will  give  him  pleasure.     Man  is  gregarious;  he 


184  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

loves  company;  he  works  more  cheerfully  and  effi- 
ciently with  others  than  alone.  He  likes  cheerful, 
contented  people  about  him,  for  then  he  the  more 
easily  maintains  his  own  cheer  and  content.  If  worry 
comes  he  must  banish  it ;  he  will  escape  from  his  diffi- 
culties, not  by  worrying,  but  by  thinking.  One  of 
the  advantages  of  play  is  that  it  helps  a  man  to  forget 
his  worries  and  tones  up  his  mind  for  a  fresh  attack 
on  their  cause  the  next  day.  The  man  who  gives 
willing  harborage  to  any  of  the  evil  passions  weakens 
himself  much  more  than  he  hurts  others. 

9.  Beady  remedies. — It  should  go  without  saying 
that  a  man  who  practises  the  gospel  of  health  laid 
down  in  this  chapter  will  need  no  medicines  of  any 
kind,  but  we  all  have  our  weak  moments  and  are  liable 
to  indiscretions  of  conduct  which  bring  in  their  wake 
headaches,  constipation,  "biliousness,"  and  then  we  are 
tempted  to  see  whether  we  cannot  "get  well  quick"  by 
trying  some  remedy  which  all  our  friends  declare  to  be 
efficacious  and  perfectly  harmless.  But  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  a  harmless  drug.  Any  drug  which  will 
relieve  a  pain  in  the  head  is  a  poison;  that  is,  it  in- 
terferes with  nature's  way  of  doing  things.  Physi- 
cians know  this  truth  perfectly  and  so  are  very  earnest 
and  sincere  in  advising  against  the  use  of  medicines 
unless  administered  under  competent  medical  super- 
vision. Physical  pain  is  nature's  danger  signal.  A 
toothache  gives  you  notice  that  you  have  not  kept 
your  teeth  clean.  The  ache  of  a  corn  warns  you  that 
the  shoe  does  not  fit.     Influenza  is  nature's  notice  that 


HEALTH  185 

you  have  eaten  too  much,  or  that  you  have  been  breath- 
ing impure  air,  or  that  you  have  been  derelict  in  your 
exercises. 

In  every  drug  store  there  are  ready  remedies  for  al- 
most every  kind  of  human  ailment.  They  are  known 
as  proprietary  or  patent  medicines,  and  people  can 
easily  be  found  who  will  testify  to  the  virtues  of  each 
one  of  them.  These  ready  remedies  do  a  great  deal 
of  harm,  not  only  because  in  the  long  run  they  injure 
the  health,  but  because  they  perpetuate  the  illusion 
that  somehow  health  is  to  be  found  in  a  medicine 
bottle  or  in  a  pill  box,  and  so  they  keep  people  from 
learning  the  important  truth  that  health  really  can  be 
got  only  by  right  living.  When  serious  sickness 
comes,  then  a  man  should  consult  his  physician.  To 
swallow  drugs  unprescribed  by  a  doctor  is  gambling 
with  disease  and  death. 

10.  Alcohol  and  other  habit-forming  drugs. — The 
kind  of  people  who  read  the  Modern  Business  Texts 
need  not  be  warned  against  John  Barleycorn  in  what- 
ever guise  he  appears.  They  doubtless  know  that  he 
is  an  enemy  of  efficiency  and  that  the  man  who  asso- 
ciates with  him  can  never  achieve  high  success. 

Sometimes  we  hear  people  talk  as  follows  in  favor 
of  alcohol  and  other  so-called  stimulants:  "The 
strenuous  exactions  of  modern  civilization  make  neces- 
sary some  use  of  narcotics  and  stimulants.  We  do 
not  tire  our  muscles  with  heavy  outdoor  work  as  did 
our  ancestors  and  we  really  need  something  to  quiet 
our  nerves  and  make  us  sleep."     Or  we  hear  people 


186  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

talking  like  this:  "I  do  not  believe  in  drinking  too 
much,  but  a  glass  of  beer  or  whiskey  now  and  then 
does  no  harm  and  they  certainly  do  liven  up  a  com- 
pany." Such  people  do  not  know  that  alcohol  is  a 
poison,  a  drug  which  produces  abnormal  changes  in 
the  tissues  of  the  body  and  cells  of  the  brain.  These 
changes  are  at  first  pleasurable.  Anxieties,  fear,  dis- 
content seem  to  fade  out  of  the  consciousness.  A 
cocktail,  as  some  one  has  said,  "throws  a  thin  veil  over 
reality,"  making  the  hard  facts  of  life  soft  and  pleas- 
ant. All  this  seems  very  delightful  to  the  man  taking 
his  first  drinks.  No  one  could  convince  him  that  the 
pleasure  he  enjoys  is  subtly  weakening  his  will,  and 
that  if  he  does  not  stop  at  once  the  day  will  certainly 
come  when  he  will  be  unable  to  stop,  when  alcohol  will 
seem  as  necessary  to  him  as  food  and  sleep. 

There  are  plenty  of  people  who  will  tell  the  young 
business  man  that  a  moderate  use  of  alcoholic  bever- 
ages is  not  harmful.  A  young  man  should  give  no 
ear  to  such  talk.  In  the  first  place  the  moderate  use 
of  alcohol  is  harmful.  It  lessens  all  the  powers  of  a 
man.  It  makes  him  waste  an  hour  in  bed,  for  his 
abused  tissues  need  more  rest  in  order  to  recuperate. 
In  the  second  place,  there  are  no  moderate  drinkers. 
The  appetite  for  alcohol  is  cumulative.  Today  one 
drink  leads  to  the  second ;  in  a  few  days  or  weeks  your 
moderate  drinker  will  want  a  third  each  day.  Before 
long  he  will  be  taking  a  fourth  and  still  think  him- 
self a  moderate  drinker.  Any  honest  physician  will 
tell  such  a  man  what  place  he  is  headed  toward. 


HEALTH  187 

The  business  man,  whether  young  or  middle-aged, 
must  let  all  habit-forming  drugs  alone.  As  tor 
tobacco,  tea  and  coffee,  every  man  must  be  his  own 
judge,  for  with  respect  to  the  effects  of  these  drugs 
the  doctors  disagree.  If  a  man  does  not  use  them  the 
presumption  is  certainly  in  his  favor. 

11.  Food. — A  prominent  business  man  once  re- 
marked to  a  friend:  "If  I  ever  build  another  house 
I  am  not  going  to  have  any  dining  room  in  it — just 
stalls  into  which  a  fellow  can  go  and  get  something 
whenever  he  is  hungry." 

He  had  been  a  victim  of  overeating  and  had  an 
idea  that  he  ate  too  much  three  times  a  day  because  his 
appetite  was  artificially  stimulated  by  the  sight  of 
others  overfeeding. 

The  subject  of  foods  has  long  been  a  popular  one  in 
our  weekly  and  monthly  periodicals,  and  most  people 
ought  to  know  all  that  is  worth  knowing  about  calor- 
ies, proteids  and  carbohydrates.  The  layman,  if  he 
lives  right,  need  know  nothing  about  such  things.  In 
fact  it  is  well  for  him  not  to  think  at  all  about  the 
chemical  constituency  of  the  food  he  puts  into  his 
mouth. 

A  wise  physician  once  said  to  a  dyspeptic  patient: 
"I  do  not  care  what  you  eat,  eat  whatever  you  like; 
but  I  do  care  how  you  eat  it.  No  medicine  will  cure 
you.  You  can  get  well  and  strong  only  by  eating 
slowly  and  chewing  your  food.  Take  no  ready  reme- 
dies."' 

On  the  subject  of  eating  there  are  three  tilings 

1—14 


188  M'SINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

which  are  worth  bearing  in  mind  and  about  whieh 
physicians  are  agreed: 

First,  you  must  eat  slowly  and  chew  your  food 
thoroly.  Second,  you  must  be  in  the  best  possible 
humor  when  eating.  There  must  be  only  cheerful 
conversation.  You  should,  therefore,  not  eat  when 
overtired  or  under  a  nervous  strain.  Third,  you 
should  not  worry  at  all  about  whether  this  or  that 
article  of  food  is  going  to  digest  or  lie  heavy  on  your 
stomach.  Joseph  Choate  once  said:  "The  less  we 
think  about  our  insides,  the  better."  Consider  the 
words  of  the  Prophet,  "That  which  I  feared  hath 
come  upon  me." 

You  cannot  possibly  drink  too  much  pure  water. 
Most  people  drink  too  little.  It  may  be  said  on  good 
authority  that  the  average  man  needs  about  two  quarts 
a  day.  Water  drunk  at  meals  is  harmful  only  when 
it  is  used  to  wash  down  the  food  and  save  the  jaws  the 
trouble  of  chewing. 

This  chapter,  by  the  way,  has  not  been  written  for 
invalids,  but  for  well  men  who  want  to  keep  well. 

REVIEW 

Why  does  business,  a  sedentary  occupation,  cause  a  strain  on 
the  body,  which  can  be  met  only  with  perfect  health? 

Are  muscular  development  and  sound  health  one  and  the  same 
thing? 

Is  health  a  gift  of  nature,  or  can  it  be  earned? 

State  the  relative  advantages  of  exercise  and  play. 

Give  instances  of  the  power  of  the  mind  over  the  body. 

What  is  the  effect  of  the  use  of  alcohol  on  health,  mind,  will 
and  energy? 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  EFFICIENT  BUSINESS  MAN 

1.  Certain  essential  qualities. — In  the  preceding 
chapters  I  have  called  attention  here  and  there  to 
various  qualities  which  the  successful  business  man 
must  possess.  I  have  endeavored  to  show,  for  ex- 
ample, that  he  must  possess  a  sane,  sound,  clear  intel- 
lect, a  healthy  body  and  a  strong  will.  In  this  chap- 
ter, we  will  group  together  the  qualities  that  are  essen- 
tial to  success  and  try  to  demonstrate  and  illustrate 
their  importance. 

We  shall  discover  that  each  quality  or  characteristic 
depends  for  its  strength  upon  a  man's  possession  of 
certain  other  qualities,  all  working  together  to  pro- 
duce a  strong  man.  If  a  man  lacks  any  one  of  them 
he  is  liable  to  be  a  failure,  or  at  least  to  achieve  only 
mediocre  success.  These  qualities,  it  might  be  said, 
are  the  links  in  the  chain  of  a  business  man's  character, 
which  cannot  be  stronger  than  the  weakest  link. 

Successful  business  men  possess  these  qualities  in 
different  degrees,  one  man  being  specially  distin- 
guished by  his  power  of  decision,  another  by  his  great 
executive  ability,  another  by  his  wonderful  vision  or 
imagination.  In  no  successful  business  man  will  any 
one  of  these  qualities  be  lacking. 

189 


190  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

2.  Decision, — The  most  important  quality  Is  the 
power  of  decision.  In  business  a  man  who  hesitates  is 
lost.  When  a  man  wobbles,  rubs  his  chin  and  can- 
not decide  which  of  two  policies  is  the  better,  he  is  a 

man  of  weak  will,  irresolute  and  wavering.     At  the 

last  moment,  when  there  must  he  action  and  no  more 
deliberation  or  hesitation,  his  decision  is  liable  to  be  in- 
fluenced unduly  by  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  on 
him  by  others:  and  if  no  such  pressure  is  brought  to 
bear  on  him.  there  is  danger  that  he  will  postpone  de- 
cision until  too  late. 

Indecision  does  not  necessarily  indicate  weakness 
of  will.  It  seems  rather  to  be  born  oi'  a  timid  intel- 
lect, one  distrustful  of  its  own  judgments.  The  man 
who  does  not  decide  promptly  and  positively  usually 
justifies  himself  on  the  ground  that  he  wishes  to  be 
sure  that  he  is  right,  that  he  wants  to  study  the  matter 
in  all  its  phases,  that  it  is  so  important  that  he  must 
consider  it  from  all  points  of  view  and  eliminate  all 
possibility  of  mistake.  Indecision  appears  to  be  a 
mental  weakness  in  which  the  intellect  is  involved  quite 
as  much  as  the  will. 

Thinking  is  not  a  slow  process:  nothing  can  be 
swifter  than  thought.  It  takes  time,  indeed,  to  gather 
the  data  upon  which  a  judgment  is  based,  but  once 
having  the  facts  in  hand  the  alert  mind  instantly  forms 
its  judgment. 

A  business  man  should  be  so  thoroly  saturated  with 
information  about  his  business,  should  know  so  much 
about  his  costs,  his  market,  his  organization,  the  ca- 


THE  EFFICIENT  BUSINESS  MAX  191 

pacity  of  his  plant,  his  credit  standing,  that  when  a 
new  problem  is  presented  his  mind  will  have  before  it 
all  the  knowledge  necessary  for  a  wise  decision :  and  he 

should  decide  promptly.  If  he  postpones  decision  un- 
til tomorrow  or  next  week  he  will  lose,  for  some  of  his 
competitors  will  make  instant  decision  and  get  the  ad- 
vantage of  him. 

One  of  our  greatest  bankers  once  said  to  me:  T 
do  not  want  a  young  man  in  this  bank  who  always  asks 
advice  when  he  runs  up  against  something  new.  I 
like  the  young  man  who  is  not  afraid  to  do  things  on 
his  own  hook.  Sometimes  he  makes  mistakes,  but  he 
is  worth  much  more  to  us  than  the  fellow  who  dares 
not  do  anything  until  he  has  been  told  the  right  way." 

Another  successful  man  once  told  me:  "Decision  i> 
the  biggest  of  all  business  qualities.  All  day  long 
I  do  nothing  but  decide.  It  is  the  hardest  kind  of 
work,  altho  it  may  look  easy  to  a  subordinate  who 
is  doing  drudgery.  A  chauffeur  knows  no  more  about 
machinery  than  an  ordinary  mechanic,  but  his  wages 
are  twice  as  high.  The  reason  is  that  the  chaufl 
is  able  to  make  decisions,  while  the  mechanic  is  merely 
a  routine  worker." 

3.  Expert  knowledge. — I  have  said  that  the  busi- 
man  should  be  saturated  with  information  about 
his  business.  He  should  have  what  we  call  "expert" 
knowledge.  To  begin  with,  he  should  be  familiar 
with  every  kind  of  activity  that  his  business  calls  for, 
and  he  must  know  how  hard  the  work  is  and  how  much 
he  has  a  right  to  expect  from  an  employe  each  day: 


192  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

otherwise  he  will  be  at  the  mercy  of  his  subordinates. 

The  best  way  for  a  man  to  get  this  knowledge  of 
his  own  business  is  to  go  "thru  the  mill"  him- 
self and  perform  all  its  tasks.  That  is  one  of  the 
reasons  why  many  of  our  most  successful  business 
men  have  attained  their  distinction;  they  began  as 
poor  boys  and  by  means  of  their  force,  their  brains, 
their  character,  worked  up  to  the  top,  where  they  easily 
maintain  their  position  because  they  know  exactly 
what  to  expect  from  all  their  employes. 

The  son  or  nephew  of  a  successful  man  is  not  to  be 
congratulated  if  he  is  taken  into  the  business  and 
given  a  "soft"  place.  He  misses  a  most  important 
discipline  and  will  never  thoroly  understand  the  busi- 
ness. As  in  the  case  of  the  city  man  who  turns  gentle- 
man farmer, — the  chances  are  that  he  will  prove  a 
failure.  It  is  not  necessary  to  give  illustrations. 
Every  well-read  American  man  can  supply  these  by 
the  hundred,  both  of  poor  boys  who  have  climbed  up, 
and  of  rich  men's  sons  who  have  proved  failures  be- 
cause they  were  allowed  to  skip  the  first  grades  in 
the  "school  of  hard  knocks." 

But  a  complete  knowledge  of  one's  own  business  is 
not  enough.  A  man  must  know  much  more  than 
the  details  of  his  own  shop  and  organization.  If  he 
is  a  manufacturer  he  must  be  as  familiar  as  possible 
with  the  methods  of  his  competitors  and  with  the 
quality  of  the  goods  they  produce.  If  his  raw  ma- 
terial is  wool,  then  he  must  be  an  encyclopedia  of  in- 
formation with  regard  to  it.     He  must  know  all  about 


THE  EFFICIENT  BUSINESS  MAN  193 

dye-stuffs  and  must  be  the  first  to  take  advantage  of 
new  discoveries.  The  machinery  he  uses  must  be  his 
constant  care,  for  he  will  be  undone  if  his  competitors 
produce  goods  at  a  lower  cost. 

As  his  business  grows,  the  chances  for  profit  and  loss 
will  increase  in  the  various  departments,  in  the  routing 
of  goods  over  railroads,  in  the  granting  of  credit  to 
customers,  in  the  purchase  of  raw  material,  in  adver- 
tising, in  failure  to  forecast  market  changes,  or  in 
failure  to  make  prompt  readjustment  to  meet  new  con* 
ditions.  The  successful  manager  of  a  great  business 
cannot  afford  to  rely  wholly  upon  the  heads  of  de- 
partments. He  needs  able  lieutenants  and  must 
often  rely  greatly  upon  them,  but  there  will  be  critical 
times  when  they  will  be  in  doubt,  and  then  he  must 
be  competent  to  make  prompt  decision. 

To  be  really  efficient  in  business  a  man  must,  be- 
cause of  his  experience  and  knowledge,  be  able  in  an 
emergency  to  take  the  place  and  do  the  work  of  any 
subordinate,  and  do  it  well. 

4.  Judgment. — Not  only  must  a  business  man  have 
power  of  decision  and  an  abundance  of  information 
relative  to  his  business;  he  must  also  possess  sound 
judgment.  He  may  have  queer  ideas  and  theories 
about  religion,  politics,  social  reforms,  the  Chinese, 
the  North  Pole,  or  the  universe  in  general,  but  in  mat- 
ters of  business  he  must  be  a  man  of  eminent  common 
sense.  In  his  business  he  is  seeking  to  render  some 
sort  of  service  to  his  fellow-men,  and  he  must  have  the 
strictest  regard  for  their  tastes  and  opinions.     There 


194.  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

is  an  old  saying  "Business  is  business,"  which  is  often 
supposed  to  mean  that  in  business,  somehow,  a  man 
may  be  hard,  cruel,  unsympathetic,  even  tho  in  his 
home  and  social  life  he  be  a  kindly,  generous  and 
charitable  Christian.  This  popular  interpretation  is 
wrong.  "Business  is  business"  means  that  common 
sense,  the  cumulative  judgment  of  many  generations 
of  business  men,  has  agreed  upon  certain  correct  rules 
of  conduct  in  business  which  ought  not  to  be  broken. 

A  judgment,  as  was  explained  in  the  Introduction 
to  this  volume,  is  the  result  of  a  reasoning  process, 
either  inductive  or  deductive.  A  man  of  good  judg- 
ment is  one  whose  mind  thinks  clearly  and  is  not  in- 
fluenced by  prejudice,  sympathy  or  personal  wishes. 
Men  are  prone  to  believe  what  they  wish  to  believe. 
This  natural  inclination  a  man  of  good  judgment  will 
overcome.  Too  many  men  in  business  are  controlled 
by  hope  rather  than  by  sound  judgment;  they  easily 
let  their  judgment  be  convinced  that  the  course  of 
events  is  going  to  be  as  they  desire,  that  the  market 
for  their  goods  will  be  steady  and  strong,  that  the 
prices  of  their  raw  materials  will  rise  no  higher,  or 
that  their  losses  are  due  to  the  evil  practices  of  some 
competitor.  The  man  of  good  judgment  does  not 
try  to  make  excuses  for  himself.  If  he  has  blundered, 
he  admits  it  and  calmly  looks  for  the  reason  why  he 
made  the  mistake. 

Good  judgment  is  most  valuable  in  the  forecasting 
of  the  condition  of  a  man's  market,  or  of  general  busi- 
ness conditions.     Market  conditions  depend  upon  an 


THE  EFFICIENT  BUSINESS  MAN  195 

almost  infinite  variety  of  circumstances,  yet,  as  is  ex- 
plained in  the  Modern  Business  Text  on  "Invest- 
ment," there  are  certain  circumstances  such  as  money- 
market  conditions  and  the  state  of  the  iron  and  steel 
business,  which  are  properly  regarded  as  dominant 
in  importance.  Then  there  are  the  professional  fore- 
casters, who  assume  to  speak  with  great  authority 
about  business  conditions  and  prospects.  The  busi- 
ness man  of  good  judgment  will  get  all  the  informa- 
tion he  can,  and  will  give  heed  to  the  reasoning  and 
opinions  of  others,  but  he  will  do  his  own  thinking  and 
form  his  own  conclusions. 

In  1898,  a  manufacturer  whose  raw  material  was 
steel  had  his  attention  called  to  some  facts  which  set 
him  thinking — that  the  price  of  steel  was  lower  than 
it  had  been  for  many  years;  that  prices  in  general  had 
been  falling  for  over  twenty-five  years;  that  business 
had  been  prostrate  since  the  panic  of  1893;  that  the 
increasing  output  of  gold  must  soon  have  an  effect 
upon  the  level  of  prices ;  that  there  were  many  reasons 
to  expect  a  revival  of  business  in  the  near  future. 
That  was  in  June  of  1898.  The  manufacturer  was 
so  impressed  that  he  immediately  ordered  a  quantity 
of  steel  sufficient  to  last  him  for  three  years  if  the  de- 
mand for  his  product  did  not  increase.  In  September, 
business  in  general  began  to  pick  up,  and  by  the  end 
of  the  year  this  manufacturer  was  in  the  market  again 
buying  steel.  The  lively  demand  for  his  product  had 
used  up  all  that  he  had  bought  in  June. 

In  June  his  partners  said  he  was  crazy;  in  Decern- 


196  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

ber  they  doubtless  thought  he  had  made  a  lucky  stroke. 
lie  was  neither  crazy  nor  lucky.  He  made  money 
simply  because  he  had  good  judgment  and  relied  upon 
it. 

5.  Self-reliance. — The  importance  of  self-reliance 
needs  little  more  than  the  mere  mention.  If  a  man 
is  afraid  to  trust  his  own  conclusions,  all  his  thinking 
is  of  no  avail.  He  is  doomed  to  be  a  timid  business 
man. 

If  the  manufacturer  referred  to  in  the  foregoing 
section  had  doubted  his  judgment,  or  had  let  himself 
be  influenced  by  the  mere  opinions  of  his  partners, 
their  arguments  not  having  convinced  his  judgment, 
the  return  of  prosperity  would  have  found  him  un- 
prepared to  take  advantage  of  it. 

A  man  who  wants  advice  before  he  does  anything 
important  can  never  be  a  great  business  man. 

6.  Patience  and  grit. — Business  is  a  game  in  which 
victory  often  comes  when  defeat  seems  inevitable. 
That  is  why  patience  and  grit  are  essential  qualities. 
The  man  who  loses  his  nerve  and  gets  discouraged 
when  things  go  against  him,  who  is  in  despair  because 
his  employes  are  making  unreasonable  demands  and 
threatening  to  strike,  who  cannot  patiently  wrait  for  a 
favorable  turn  of  the  market,  who  does  not  pluckily 
strive  in  hard  times  to  increase  the  demand  for  his 
goods,  is  like  a  prize-fighter  who  wants  his  seconds  to 
throw  up  the  sponge  after  the  first  knockdown.  He 
lacks  grit,  a  quality  absolutely  essential  to  success  in 
business. 


THE  EFFICIENT  BUSINESS  MAN  197 

It  took  patience  and  grit  for  Marshall  Field  to  save 
his  first  thousand  dollars,  for  Bell  to  make  his  tele- 
phone a  business  necessity,  for  Stephenson  to  prove 
the  value  of  the  locomotive  and  the  railroad,  for  James 
J.  Hill  to  demonstrate  that  the  despised  Northwest 
was  pregnant  with  myriads  of  gardens,  orchards  and 
wheat-fields,  for  the  Wright  Brothers  to  keep  at  their 
costly  experiments  in  the  face  of  all  the  scorn  about 
"Darius  Green  and  his  flying  machine."  If  patience 
and  grit  had  been  lacking  there  could  have  been  no 
Wanamaker  stores,  no  Transcontinental  railroads,  no 
Standard  Oil  Company,  no  United  States  Steel  Cor- 
poration, no  great  mining  developments,  no  great  en- 
terprise of  any  kind  which  did  not  promise  immediate 
and  certain  returns. 

Everybody  knows  the  type  of  man  who  wants  to 
"get  rich  quick"  and  who  complains  bitterly  if  things 
do  not  go  at  once  to  his  liking.  He  lacks  patience  and 
grit,  and  the  chances  are  against  him. 

7.  Concentration. — It  is  well  known  that  all  in- 
ventors possess  in  high  degree  the  power  of  concen- 
tration. They  are  striving  to  convert  an  idea  into 
reality,  to  create  a  new  machine,  to  find  a  new  and 
better  way  of  doing  something,  and  they  need  the 
help  of  all  their  mental  powers,  especially  judgment, 
memory  and  imagination.  A  man  unable  to  concen- 
trate will  never  invent  anything  worth  while. 

In  business  there  is  constant  need  of  invention.  If 
an  up-to-date  business  man  of  twenty  years  ago  had 
left  the  United  States  in  search  of  health  or  pleasure 


198  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

and  had  lived  in  the  wilds  of  South  Africa  or  South 
America,  where  he  saw  no  newspapers,  magazines  or 
new  hooks,  he  would  be  amazed,  if  he  came  back  today, 
by  the  great  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  our 
ways  of  doing  business.  The  changes  are  so  gradual 
that  they  attract  little  attention,  and  are  not  noticed 
at  all  by  many  people.  Some  of  the  changes  are  due 
to  important  physical  inventions,  such  as  the  tele- 
phone or  the  automobile ;  but  many  are  due  to  the  en- 
terprising inventive  genius  of  the  American  business 
man. 

Business  is  in  many  respects  comparable  to  the 
factory.  In  a  factory,  the  work  is  done  by  machinery 
under  the  control  of  men;  the  work  is  not  called  busi- 
ness, but  labor,  and  in  order  to  increase  the  efficiency 
of  the  labor  every  effort  is  made  by  a  wTide-awake  su- 
perintendent, not  only  to  improve  the  machinery,  but 
also  to  organize  and  correlate  the  men  and  the  ma- 
chines so  that  there  shall  be  no  lost  time  and  no  wasted 
energy. 

Back  of  the  factory  is  the  business  which  directs  its 
activities  and  markets  its  products.  In  the  business, 
machines  are  of  relatively  small  importance.  The 
manager  need  give  little  thought  to  the  merits  of 
competing  typewriters,  adding  machines  and  filing  de- 
vices. Yet  his  whole  business,  in  a  sense,  is  a  compli- 
cated machine  made  up  of  the  various  departments 
and  their  subdivisions,  and  it  is  most  important  that 
he  be  continually  at  work  making  improvements.  He 
must  reduce  costs  and  increase  efficiency  in  the  con- 


THE  EFFICIENT  BUSINESS  MAN  199 

duct  of  the  business  as  well  as  in  the  operations  of  the 
factory.  The  great  business  man  is  never  content 
with  what  has  been  done  by  others  or  by  himself.  He 
is  always  surprising  his  competitors  by  doing  some- 
thing which  they  had  not  deemed  possible,  and  of 
which  they  had  never  dreamed.  This  no  man  can  do 
unless  he  exercises  great  power  of  concentration. 

When  a  man  is  concentrating  his  mental  powers 
upon  a  problem,  he  is  absolutely  unconscious  of  the 
lapse  of  time.  The  dinner  hour  goes  by  unnoticed; 
strange  noises  do  not  attract  his  attention,  he  knows 
not  whether  he  is  too  cold  or  too  warm — his  mind 
attends  to  only  one  thing.  Usually,  however,  long 
periods  of  absolute  concentration  are  unnecessary. 
Since  the  mind  is  lightning-like  in  its  activity,  a  good 
business  man  is  able  in  a  few  moments  of  real  con- 
centration to  solve  almost  any  problem  that  arises, 
but  he  must  concentrate. 

8.  Enthusiasm. — I  never  knew  a  very  successful 
business  man  who  did  not  love  his  business  next  to  his 
wife  and  children.  Enthusiastic  joy  and  pride  in 
one's  business  seem  to  be  essential  to  success.  En- 
thusiasm means  gladly,  unrestrainedly,  naturally  put- 
ting your  whole  self  into  the  performance  of  any  act. 
There  can  be  nothing  artificial  about  enthusiasm.  A 
man  who  is  enthusiastic  about  his  business  loves  it  and 
can  hardly  be  dragged  away  from  it.  When  lie  makes 
a  successful  stroke  he  is  as  happy  as  a  king,  and  as 
proud  as  an  author  over  his  first  book. 

The  business  man  full  of  enthusiasm  docs  not  like 


800  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

to  be  separated  long  from  his  business.  He  likes 
week-ends  rather  than  long  vacations,  and  when  he 
goes  away  for  rest  he  takes  his  business  with  him,  un- 
less he  is  a  devotee  of  golf  or  is  greatly  interested  in 
some  avocation  like  gardening,  stock-raising  or  horse- 
breeding. 

A  man  who  is  in  business  just  to  make  a  living  or  to 
make  money,  and  not  because  he  loves  it,  cannot  be  a 
great  business  man. 

9.  Imagination . — In  a  separate  chapter  we  have  al- 
ready discussed  the  important  part  which  imagination 
plays  in  business.  It  deserves  a  word  in  this  chapter, 
not  only  because  it  is  essential  to  business  success,  but 
because  it  can  be  used  safely  only  in  connection  with 
the  other  qualities  which  we  have  discussed.  A  busi- 
ness man  is  constantly  planning  campaigns ;  he  devises 
methods  to  increase  his  sales;  he  seeks  to  create  new 
things  that  people  will  want ;  he  looks  for  possibilities 
that  can  be  made  realities.  Imagination  is  the  faculty 
which  helps  him  discover  the  sources  of  hidden  poten- 
tial profit.  The  man  whose  vision  does  not  take  him 
into  the  future  and  show  him  the  structure  of  which 
he  is  now  laying  the  foundation  must  be  content  with 
small  affairs. 

10.  Executive  ability. — In  the  chapter  on  "The 
Executive"  I  discuss  in  detail  the  nature  of  this  work 
and  the  qualities  he  should  possess.  In  this  chapter 
I  will  merely  explain  what  is  meant  by  "executive 
ability"  and  why  it  is  an  essential  part  of  a  good  busi- 
ness man's  equipment. 


THE  EFFICIENT  BUSINESS  MAN  201 

The  executive  is  one  who  plans  and  controls  the 
work  of  others,  taking  upon  his  own  shoulders  all  the 
responsibility  for  the  successful  outcome  of  their  ef- 
fort. The  executive  thinks,  those  under  him  work; 
the  executive  issues  orders,  those  under  him  obey ;  the 
executive  is  responsible  for  the  profit  and  loss  state- 
ment, for  the  success  or  failure  of  the  business;  those 
under  him  are  responsible  only  for  the  performance  of 
their  particular  tasks. 

A  man  who  possesses  executive  ability  is  able  to 
plan  wisely  and  make  others  understand  his  plans. 
He  will  have  confidence  in  the  wisdom  of  his  plans, 
and  his  manner  will  instill  the  same  confidence  into  his 
subordinates.  He  will  be  a  good  judge  of  men  and 
will  surround  himself  with  helpers  who  can  be  of  most 
use  to  him.  He  will  have  the  faculty  of  getting  the 
best  service  out  of  every  man  in  his  employ,  sometimes 
by  relying  on  his  tact,  sometimes  on  firmness,  some- 
times by  a  subtle  appeal  to  a  man's  pride,  sometimes 
by  using  praise,  and  sometimes  by  harsh  words  of 
blame.  In  executive  ability  we  have  summed  up  all 
the  qualities  essential  to  success  in  business.  The  ex- 
ecutive is  the  general  of  the  army;  he  must  have  in 
him  all  the  qualities  of  a  good  soldier. 

REVIEW 

If  you,  as  a  business  man,  were  choosing  an  associate,  what  is 
the  most  important  quality  you  would  look  for  in  him?  Why 
do  you  consider  this  quality  important? 

Taking  for  granted  that  a  business  man  needs  a  thoro  knowl- 
edge of  his  own  business,  what  is  the  best  way  for  him  to  acquire 
it?     What  other  knowledge  does  he  need  for  efficiency? 


20.2  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

What  is  the  correct  interpretation  of  the  phrase  "Business  is 
business"?      How  would  you  apply  it  to  your  own  business? 

From  your  own  experience  give  examples  of  what  you  consider 
good  judgment?  In  what  fields  is  good  judgment  most  valuable? 
How  is  concentration  valuable  in  business?  How  can  you  apply 
it  to  your  own  business  ? 

What  do  you  consider  "executive  ability"?  How  is  it  ap- 
plied ? 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  EXECUTIVE 

1.  Three  classes  of  men. — Plato  divided  the  people 
of  his  ideal  republic  into  three  classes:  The  philos- 
ophers who  did  the  thinking  and  ruling;  their  lieuten- 
ants, who  executed  orders;  and  finally,  the  great  mass 
of  the  people,  most  of  them  slaves. 

The  French  essayist,  Montesquieu,  also  divided 
mankind  into  three  classes:  First,  those  who  are  able 
to  think,  to  give  the  world  new  ideas;  second,  men  who 
cannot  do  original  thinking  but  who  can  understand 
the  ideas  of  the  first  class;  third,  men  who  can  neither 
think  nor  understand  the  thinking  done  by  others. 
Unhappily  the  majority  of  men  belong  in  the  third 
class. 

Tin's  is  a  view  of  humanity  which  with  modification 
and  details  frequently  occurs.  Currency  has  been 
given  of  late  to  the  term  supermen.  They  arc  sup- 
posed tf)  be  superior  to  the  rest  of  men  and  not  subject 
to  the  laws  made  for  the  common  people;  the  super- 
man obeys  only  the  law  that  he  makes  himself.  The 
second  class  consists  of  those  intelligent  enough  to 
understand  and  execute  the  will  of  the  first  class. 
The  third  class,  the  common  herd,  is  considered  to  be 

1-15  203 


204  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

of  little  more  consequence  on  earth  than  the  lower 
forms  of  animal  life.     They  are  only  slaves. 

If  we  were  to  accept  these  philosophers'  views  and 
were  forced  to  believe  that  the  walls  between  the 
classes  are  insurmountable,  so  that  a  human  being 
born  into  one  class  can  never  climb  into  the  one  above, 
we  should  have  a  right  to  think  this  a  very  sorry 
world.  Under  such  circumstances  the  great  work  of 
the  Alexander  Hamilton  Institute,  and  for  that  mat- 
ter of  all  other  educational  institutions,  would  lose  its 
most  compelling  motive,  namely  the  development  of 
the  latent  powers  of  men  in  order  that  they  may  rise 
to  higher  levels  and  lead  more  efficient  lives.  But  we 
know  that  a  man  is  not  like  a  tree  or  a  dog ;  by  his  own 
will  he  can  escape  from  a  narrow  environment,  and  by 
his  own  will  he  can  loosen  the  fetters  inherited  from  an 
evil  ancestry. 

Nevertheless,  the  philosophers'  classifications  had  a 
basis.  We  all  know  men  who  are  natural  leaders, 
men  whom  others  instinctively  trust  and  obey;  also 
men  who  make  excellent  lieutenants  or  assistants,  but 
who  need  the  guidance  of  a  more  masterful  mind ;  also 
the  millions  who  do  no  planning  or  directing  and  are 
able  to  perform  only  such  tasks  as  they  have  mastered 
thru  imitation  and  practice.  In  this  and  the  two  fol- 
lowing chapters  we  shall  discuss  the  characteristics  of 
these  different  groups  of  men  and  briefly  consider  the 
kinds  of  work  they  do.  For  convenience  we  call  the 
men  of  the  highest  class  executives;  those  of  the  sec- 
ond class  sub-executives,  or  subordinate,  or  junior 


THE  EXECUTIVE  205 

officers;  those  of  the  third  class,  "rank-and-file 
workers."  Every  reader  ought  to  know  with  which 
class  he  is  now  working  and  he  should  be  trying  to  rind 
out  just  what  he  ought  to  do  in  order  to  rise  into  a 
higher  class.  His  advancement  depends  absolutely 
upon  himself.  No  power  on  earth  can  take  an  ordi- 
nary "rank-and-file"  worker  and  mold  him  into  an 
executive.     He  alone  can  do  it — if  it  can  be  done. 

2.  The  executive  a  business  statesman. — A  few 
hundred  years  ago,  when  all  shoes  were  made  by  hand, 
the  shoemaker  who  fitted  the  foot  of  his  customer  per- 
fectly was  a  good  workman.  If  he  undertook  to  make 
more  shoes  than  he  could  deliver  on  time,  or  if  he  was 
sometimes  idle  because  his  stock  of  leather  was  ex- 
hausted, or  if  many  of  his  customers  found  fault  and 
refused  to  pay  for  their  shoes,  he  was  not  a  good  busi- 
ness man;  for  he  lacked  executive  ability. 

Here  is  a  man  who  plans;  he  knows  in  advance  how 
much  he  will  need  of  this  or  of  that  material;  he  pre- 
pares for  every  probable  or  possible  contingency  or 
emergency;  if  more  work  comes  to  him  than  he  can  do 
alone,  he  knows  where  he  can  get  help  and  how  much 
he  can  afford  to  pay  for  it;  he  knows  where  lie  will 
market  his  goods  and  where  he  will  get  the  money  or 
credit  to  pay  his  bills  when  due.  The  man  who  is 
thus  foresighted  in  the  conduct  of  his  affairs,  no  mat- 
ter how  small  they  are,  is  an  executive. 

An  executive  in  business  must  have  the  qualities  of 
a  political  statesman.  A  mere  "politician"  plays  lh<- 
old  game  in  the  way  he  has  been  taught.     He  has 


806  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

learned  the  ropes;  he  practises  all  the  well-known 
tricks  that  will  help  bring  his  party  and  himself  into 
power;  he  supports  new  legislation  because  his  party 
has  indorsed  it  or  because  he  fears  the  party  whip. 
The  statesman,  on  the  other  hand,  is  superior  to  his 
party.  He  creates  new  issues  demanding  legislation. 
He  makes  new  parties  and  remakes  the  old. 

We  find  these  two  types  of  men  at  work  in  the  field 
of  business.  First,  we  have  the  imitator — the  man 
who  knows  all  the  tricks  of  his  trade,  who  has  learned 
by  experience  the  accepted  methods  of  doing  busi- 
ness, who  often  makes  money  because  he  works  hard, 
makes  many  friends  and  accumulates  valuable  good- 
will. Such  a  man  must  possess  a  certain  amount  of 
executive  ability,  but  he  is  not  a  great  executive.  He 
is  not  a  business  statesman. 

The  business  statesman  is  not  content  to  imitate. 
His  mind  and  ambition  drive  him  onward  to  larger 
things  and  greater  efficiency.  He  created  the  depart- 
ment store ;  he  combined  numerous  small  railways  into 
great  transportation  systems ;  he  saw  the  business  pos- 
sibilities latent  in  the  post  office  and  developed  a  great 
mail-order  business ;  he  saw  the  wastes  involved  in  old- 
fashioned  methods  and  boldly  struck  out  on  lines  of 
greater  efficiency ;  he  saw  the  possibility  of  lower  costs 
in  large-scale  production  and  distribution,  and  organ- 
ized the  so-called  trusts.  The  executive  is,  above  all 
things,  an  originator;  others  follow  him  like  sheep. 

But  the  executive  must  do  more  than  originate. 
He  must  be  able  not  merely  to  plan  but  to  drive  his 


THE  EXECUTIVE  207 

plans  thru  to  successful  execution.  He  must  be  able, 
therefore,  to  make  others  do  his  will.  He  must  pick 
men  who  will  understand  his  purpose  and  he  must 
know  that  his  instructions  are  obeyed.  The  great 
executive  combines  in  a  high  degree  the  qualities  of  the 
dreamer  and  of  the  practical  man.  He  is  what  the 
economists  call  the  'entrepreneur,"  or  enterpriser. 

3.  Delegated  responsibility  of  the  executive. — The 
proprietor  of  a  small  business,  whether  a  country  store 
or  a  box  shop  employing  only  a  few  hands,  can  carry 
alone  all  his  executive  responsibilities.  His  business 
is  all  within  the  sweep  of  his  eye,  and  his  problems  are 
not  numerous.  The  only  assistants  he  needs  are 
clerks  or  workmen. 

If  he  has  in  him  the  qualities  of  the  real  executive, 
however,  his  business  will  not  always  remain  small, 
and  the  time  will  come  when  he  will  gladly  delegate  to 
others  some  of  his  responsibilities  as  executive.  He 
may  need  a  manager  of  sales  or  of  purchasing,  or  a 
man  whose  special  duty  shall  be  the  hiring  of  employes 
and  the  supervision  of  their  work.  If  he  is  a  good 
executive  he  will  pick  the  right  men  for  these  positions 
and  have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  his  business  grow, 
with  every  detail  properly  attended  to,  even  as  it 
would  be  if  he  himself  could  be  a  hundred  nun  in  a 
hundred  different  places  at  the  same  time.  I  Tpon  the 
shoulders  of  each  of  the  sub-executives  he  will  have 
laid  part  of  his  own  burden. 

A  man  who  cannot  thus  develop  and  enlarge  his 
business  without  increasing  the  weight  upon  his  own 


208  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

shoulders,  lacks  certain  qualities  essential  to  great 
success.  It  may  be  that  he  is  merely  a  poor  judge  of 
men,  or  that  he  cannot  believe  a  thing  rightly  done  un- 
less he  does  it  himself,  or  that  he  does  not  understand 
the  principles  and  the  importance  of  organization. 
Thus  it  happens  that  under  modern  conditions,  most 
great  business  enterprises  being  conducted  by  corpora- 
tions of  very  large  capital,  many  men  of  great  execu- 
tive ability  are  employed  in  subordinate  positions. 
The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company  utilizes  the 
services  of  many  men  whose  value  lies  in  their  execu- 
tive quality.  All  of  them,  in  greater  or  lesser  degree, 
are  planning  for  the  welfare  of  the  corporation  and 
are  skilfully  directing  the  work  of  men  under  them  in 
order  that  their  plans  may  be  successfully  executed. 

The  work  of  these  sub-executives  in  any  business  is 
so  important  that  they  furnish  to  some  extent  a  prac- 
tical test  of  a  chief  executive's  ability.  It  has  often 
been  said  of  the  head  of  this  or  that  great  corpora- 
tion, "He  never  seems  in  a  hurry,  he  always  has  time 
to  talk  with  you."  The  reason  why  such  men  do  not 
seem  rushed  with  work  is  that  they  have  built  up  a 
perfect  organization  and  know  that  everything  is  be- 
ing done  in  the  way  it  ought  to  be  done.  They  have 
earned  the  right  to  play  golf  as  many  afternoons  a 
week  as  they  wish  to. 

The  sub-executives,  or  junior  officers  as  they  are 
sometimes  called,  we  shall  study  more  in  detail  in  the 
next  chapter.  It  is  from  their  ranks  that  the  respon- 
sible chief  executive  is  chosen. 


THE  EXECUTIVE  209 

4.  Qualities  of  the  executive. — The  great  executive 
must  possess  all  the  qualities  which  we  discussed  in  the 
chapter  on  "The  Efficient  Business  Man."  The 
larger  his  business,  the  greater  his  responsibilities  and 
the  heavier  the  load  he  carries.  He  must  have  intel- 
lectual power,  a  vivid  imagination,  intuitive  knowledge 
of  men,  and  a  personality  which  makes  others  keen  to 
do  his  will.  He  must  radiate  energy  and  enthusiasm, 
and  so  must  have  a  strong  neck,  large  lungs  and  a 
stomach  not  afraid  of  nails.  Finally,  and  most  im- 
portant of  all,  he  must  have  the  power  of  prompt  de- 
cision that  is  associated  with  a  strong  chin;  lacking 
this  he  will  fail  as  an  executive.  According  to  mythol- 
ogy, Achilles  worried  only  about  his  heel,  the  one 
vulnerable  part  of  his  anatomy ;  the  business  man  who 
would  be  a  great  executive  need  worry  most  about  his 
chin. 

5.  Responsibility. — While  writing  this  chapter  I  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  a  business  man  making  inquiry 
about  a  man  of  my  acquaintance,  about  30  years  old. 
"Has  he  executive  ability,  and  will  he  absorb  responsi- 
bility?" the  writer  asked.  The  questions  are  perti- 
nent. A  man  may  possess  executive  ability,  and  yet, 
from  laziness  or  lack  of  ambition,  be  unwilling  to  exer- 
cise it.  Some  people  like  to  assume  responsibility  and 
are  proud  and  glad  when  it  is  heaped  upon  them. 
Others  dread  and  avoid  it,  and  if  circumstances  force 
it  upon  them  they  either  ask  too  much  advice,  thereby 
seeking  to  throw  the  responsibility  upon  others,  or 
they  complain  that  the  "boss"  docs  not   make  clear 


210  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

what  he  wants,  or  does  not  give  them  sufficient  author- 
ity. 

The  executive  is  captain  of  the  ship;  he  picked  the 
officers  and  the  crew;  in  fair  weather  he  may  leave 
the  ship  entirely  in  the  hands  of  others,  hut  when  a 
storm  comes  on  he  is  on  the  bridge  and  is  proud  to  be 
there.  A  sailor  who  shrinks  from  responsibility,  no 
matter  what  his  education  or  his  experience  on  the 
high  seas,  would  be  a  failure  as  captain. 

Legally,  the  responsibility  for  the  conduct  of  a  cor- 
poration rests  with  the  board  of  directors,  but  they, 
as  a  rule,  promptly  delegate  their  authority  to  the 
president,  or  to  a  general  manager,  or  to  an  executive 
committee,  and  at  the  same  time  they  shift  much  of 
their  responsibility.  In  the  United  States,  corpora- 
tion directors  too  often  feel  that  their  work  is  done 
when  they  have  thus  delegated  their  authority  and  re- 
sponsibility, their  concern  thereafter  being  mainly  in 
dividends.  Hence  we  hear  so  much  about  "directors 
who  do  not  direct."  Nevertheless,  ultimate  respon- 
sibility for  the  conduct  of  a  business  corporation  does 
rest  upon  the  board  of  directors,  and  no  member  has 
the  moral  right  to  feel  that  he,  personally,  cannot  be 
blamed  if  things  go  wrong,  unless  he  has  endeavored 
most  vigorously  to  impress  his  views  and  will  upon 
his  fellow-directors.  The  director  who  gives  up  eas- 
ily, and  then  when  losses  come  excuses  himself  be- 
cause he  "did  not  really  favor  the  company's  new 
policy,"  is  not  made  of  the  right  kind  of  timber.  He 
is  a  weak  spoke  in  the  wheel. 


THE  EXECUTIVE  211 

Some  young  men  are  made,  so  to  speak,  by  respon- 
sibility. In  subordinate  positions  they  may  have 
done  their  work  conscientiously  and  yet  have  given 
no  sign  of  the  real  power  within  them.  They  do  not 
suspect  its  existence  themselves.  When  such  a  man 
is  given  a  position  carrying  some  responsibility,  his 
latent  quality  comes  to  the  surface  and  is  discovered. 
His  advancement  thereafter  is  limited  only  by  his 
mental  and  physical  powers.  Unhappily,  young  men 
who  welcome  responsibility  and  joyfully  carry  its 
load  are  in  the  minority.  Business  men  are  always  on 
the  lookout  for  them. 

The  man  who  really  heeds  the  advice,  "Make  your 
employer's  interest  your  own,"  gladly  takes  on  all 
possible  responsibility.  He  is  not  fearful  lest  some 
one  else  will  get  the  credit  for  what  he  does,  nor  does 
he  try  to  dodge  the  blame  when  he  makes  a  mistake. 

6.  Initiative. — We  all  know  the  man  of  fine  ideas 
and  great  plans  who  never  gets  anywhere.  With 
great  enthusiasm  he  describes  his  wonderful  schemes 
to  you  and  points  out  the  mistakes  that  are  being  made 
by  this  or  that  business  man.  If  you  are  inexperi- 
enced you  will  wonder  why  his  talents  are  undiscov- 
ered and  unrewarded— for  this  talkative  man,  so  full 
of  great  ideas,  has  a  small  job  that  hardly  yields  a 
living. 

Men  of  this  sort  are  numerous,  and  all  of  them  cher- 
ish the  belief  that  their  ability  is  not  appreciated. 
They  are,  of  course,  mistaken.  Their  ideas  may  be 
as  excellent  as  they  seem  and  their  plans  may  be  prac- 


212  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

tical  as  well  as  ingenious,  yet  these  men  occupy  hum- 
ble positions  because  they  lack  the  power,  the  will, 
the  grit  and  gumption  necessary  to  vitalize  their  ideas. 
They  lack  what  is  commonly  called  "initiative." 

By  initiative,  as  the  word  is  used  in  business  circles, 
is  meant  the  ability  to  think  and  do  new  things.  It  is 
a  quality  that  the  executive  must  possess.  The  man 
who  lacks  initiative  gets  into  a  rut  and  cannot  lift  him- 
self out  of  it.  If  market  conditions  change  he  does 
not  make  quick  adjustment,  and  suffers  loss.  The 
man  of  initiative,  on  the  contrary,  is  happiest  when 
he  is  springing  something  new  on  his  competitors. 
He  does  not  like  ruts  or  beaten  paths.  He  is  always 
on  the  frontier  looking  for  new  territory  to  conquer. 

7.  Courage. — It  is  evident  that  a  timid  or  ultra- 
cautious  man  must  lack  initiative  and  be  incapable  of 
great  achievements.  Many  men  decline  to  undertake 
anything  unless  they  have  positive  assurance  of  suc- 
cess. In  their  youth  they  look  for  employers  who 
will  promise  them  advancement,  for  they  want  to  feel 
certain  that  they  are  going  to  be  promoted  and  that 
their  salaries  will  be  raised  as  time  goes  on.  Men 
of  this  type  lack  courage,  that  quality  which  makes  a 
man  boldly  attack  an  enemy  who  looks  stronger  than 
himself. 

A  moral  coward,  one  who  is  afraid  to  do  what  he 
thinks  right  because  other  men  will  disapprove,  is 
never  a  valuable  member  of  any  community.  In  busi- 
ness, cowardice  of  any  kind  is  a  serious  detriment,  for 
it  will  make  a  man  hesitate  and  hang  back  at  the  very 


THE  EXECUTIVE  213 

time  when  he  should  be  pushing  ahead.  The  business 
executive  must  be  resolute  and  stout  of  heart.  He 
must  not  fear  his  competitors,  but  on  the  contrary 
make  them  fear  him.  He  must  have  the  courage  to 
meet  opposition  face  to  face  and  make  those  who  deal 
with  him  realize  that  they  are  in  contact  with  a  real 
man.  If  he  is  weak  and  timid  he  will  vacillate,  and 
his  subordinates  will  have  no  respect  for  him.  They 
will  pretend  to  respect  his  wishes,  but  behind  his  back 
they  will  speak  of  him  contemptuously  and  do  as  they 
please. 

All  great  business  men  have  been  courageous. 
They  have  dared  things  which  would  have  frightened 
and  paralyzed  weaker  men.  The  odds  were  often 
against  them,  but  they  kept  on  fighting.  They  had 
courage  as  well  as  initiative. 

8.  Energy. — The  listless,  languid,  flabby  man  can- 
not amount  to  much  as  an  executive.  Instead  of  driv- 
ing things  forward  and  getting  the  best  out  of  his 
subordinates,  he  will  be  petulant,  irritable,  fault-find- 
ing, and  the  men  under  him  will  always  be  dissatis- 
fied. 

The  executive  who  succeeds  wastes  very  little  time 
finding  fault.  He  is  so  full  of  power  that  lie  wants  to 
get  things  done.  If  a  subordinate  disappoints  him, 
he  jumps  in  and  does  the  work  himself,  if  need  be,  and 
either  discharges  the  delinquent  or  assigns  him  to  a 
task  for  which  he  is  better  fitted  or  where  the  respon- 
sibility is  less. 

What  we  call  energy  in  a  man  is  the  product  of 


214  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

physical  vigor,  or  health,  and  of  a  purpose,  or  end, 
clearly  conceived  and  strongly  desired.  An  energetic 
man  thinks  quickly,  feels  strongly  and  loves  activity. 
A  great  executive,  therefore,  cannot  be  a  physical 
weakling.  He  must  expend  a  vast  amount  of  energy, 
or  force,  and  this  he  can  get  only  from  the  air  he 
breathes  and  the  food  he  eats. 

Professor  Enoch  Burton  Gowin,  of  New  York  Uni- 
versity, in  his  very  interesting  book,  "The  Executive 
and  his  Control  of  Men,"  presents  some  statistics  that 
deserve  the  reader's  attention.  In  various  ways  he 
obtained  information  in  regard  to  the  height  and 
weight  of  over  2,000  Americans  who  were  occupying 
positions  of  leadership.  He  found  that  a  majority 
of  them  were  over  5  feet  10  inches  tall,  and  that  their 
average  weight  was  over  175  pounds.  The  average 
height  of  the  sixty-one  university  presidents  was  5  feet 
10.8  inches,  and  their  average  weight  181.6  pounds. 
The  presidents  of  small  colleges  averaged  one  inch 
less  in  height  and  seventeen  pounds  less  in  weight. 
His  returns  showed  that  railroad  presidents  on  the 
average  had  the  better  of  station  agents  by  1.5  inches 
in  height  and  31.7  pounds  in  weight. 

Professor  Gowin's  statistics  do  not  prove,  of  course, 
that  the  medium-sized  man  of  light  weight  cannot 
hope  for  distinction,  but  they  certainly  do  indicate  that 
a  strong,  well-nourished  body  is  a  human  asset  worth 
possessing.  A  man's  lungs  and  his  stomach  are  the 
sources  of  his  energy;  if  these  two  organs  are  weak, 
he  cannot  be  expected  to  amount  to  much. 


THE  EXECUTIVE  215 

The  energy  which  the  executive  needs  must  not  be 
confused  with  its  counterfeit — a  pretentious,  bustling- 
kind  of  activity  in  connection  with  petty  affairs. 
There  are  people  who  give  an  impression  of  great  en- 
ergy because  they  are  never  still  or  silent.  They  al- 
ways have  on  hand  a  great  many  more  things  than 
they  can  do,  while  their  minds  seem  charged  with  more 
messages  than  they  can  deliver.  If  you  watch  them 
work  you  wonder  at  their  tirelessness,  and  if  you  listen 
to  their  talk  long  enough  all  your  mental  faculties  go 
on  strike.  People  of  this  sort  are  not  energetic. 
They  are  best  described  as  fuss-budgets  or  fuddy-dud- 
dies. They  have  small  tho  very  active  brains,  but 
their  activity  lacks  purpose  and  continuity. 

The  really  energetic  man  is  usually  not  a  spend- 
thrift, either  with  words  or  with  deeds.  He  wants 
every  word  and  every  deed  to  count.  He  may  look 
very  easy  and  comfortable,  but  if  you  get  in  his  path 
or  try  in  any  way  to  block  him,  his  dynamic  quality 
will  startle  you. 

9.  Selection  of  subordinates. — In  Chapter  II  of 
this  volume  I  mentioned  the  building  of  an  organiza- 
tion as  one  of  the  difficulties  that  must  be  overcome  by 
the  man  who  would  make  a  profit  in  business.  Tins 
is  a  task  for  which  the  executive  is  primarily  respon- 
sible. The  president  of  a  large  corporation  does  not 
usually  hire  all  the  employes,  but  he  must  pick  out 
the  right  man  to  relieve  him  of  thai  responsibility. 
He  must,  therefore,  be  a  good  judge  of  men. 

Furthermore,  since  his  organization  must  work  as 


216  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

a  unit,  he  must  pick  men  who  will  work  together  in 
harmony.  Three  excellent  men,  if  they  have  to  work 
in  the  same  room,  may  be  comparatively  useless  to  him 
because  of  radical  differences  in  their  temperaments  or 
characters.  An  executive  charged  with  the  respon- 
sibility of  hiring  employes  will  not  produce  the  best 
results  if  he  fails  to  take  this  fact  into  account.  The 
world  is  full  of  racial  and  religious  prejudices,  and 
these  an  employer  must  not  ignore,  however  much  he 
may  despise  them. 

As  it  is  very  important  that  the  organization  be 
kept  loyal  and  enthusiastic,  an  executive  must  study 
the  men  under  him,  so  that  when  a  new  position  is  to 
be  filled  he  may  promote  an  employe  rather  than  go 
outside  and  bring  a  new  man  into  the  organization. 
Executives  who  pick  their  men  carelessly  or  handle 
them  stupidly,  not  seeking  to  make  each  employe  feel 
contented  and  hopefully  ambitious,  cannot  build  a 
really  efficient  or  loyal  organization.  In  prosperous 
times  their  best  men  will  desert  them,  and  those 
employes  who  stick  will  be  more  concerned  about  the 
size  of  their  salaries  than  about  the  quality  of  their 
work. 

10.  Methods  of  control. — In  the  discussions  of  fac- 
tory and  office  administration  in  the  Modern  Business 
Texts  the  reader  will  find  descriptions  in  detail  of  vari- 
ous methods  that  have  been  adopted  for  the  efficient 
handling  of  men.  Here  it  is  sufficient  to  point  out  the 
importance  of  this  matter,  and  it  seems  worth  while, 


THE  EXECUTIVE  217 

for  a  good  many  business  men  have  given  little 
thought  to  it. 

When  you  hire  a  man  to  work  for  you,  you  want 
the  entire  man,  and  you  may  think  that  you  get  him 
when  you  offer  him  a  salary  which  satisfies  him,  but 
you  are  mistaken.  No  man  will  give  you  himself  and 
work  for  you  as  he  would  for  himself,  unless  you  some- 
how make  him  feel  that  he  is  a  vital  and  growing  part 
of  your  business.  Hence,  if  you  wish  to  succeed  as  an 
executive  and  make  your  employes  give  you  their 
best,  you  must  manage  them  wisely. 

Different  ways  have  been  discussed  for  keeping  an 
organization  up  to  par,  but  no  one  way  can  be  called 
the  best.  The  bonus  system  may  work  well  in  one 
shop,  but  be  a  failure  in  another.  Rewards  for  un- 
usually good  work  or  for  helpful  suggestions  have 
been  found  stimulating  in  many  organizations.  Edu- 
cation or  recreation  clubs  organized  by  the  employes 
with  the  encouragement  and  active  support  of  the  em- 
ployers, are  also  productive  of  good-will  and  effi- 
ciency. Whatever  the  method  be,  it  is  most  impor- 
tant that  the  executive  make  his  employes  feel,  not 
merely  that  he  is  interested  in  their  welfare,  but  that 
he  is  determined  that  the  merit  of  not  a  single  one 
shall  be  overlooked. 

11.  "Born  leaders/' — The  quality  of  leadership 
often  appears  in  boys  at  such  an  early  age  thai  we 
speak  of  them  as  "born  leaders."  They  dominate 
their  comrades  in  all  sports;  younger  boys  fear  them 


218  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

and  dare  not  disobey  their  orders.  In  almost  every 
village  school  there  is  a  little  tyrant  who  is  feared  by 
all  the  other  children.  Often  he  is  vicious  and  has  to 
he  harshly  disciplined  by  his  teacher  and  his  parents. 
Or  he  may  be  a  boy  of  line  disposition,  loved  as  well  as 
feared  and  respected  by  his  playmates.  In  either  case 
he  is  the  captain,  and  none  of  his  mates  questions  his 
authority.  If  such  a  boy  goes  to  college  he  instinc- 
tively strives  for  leadership,  but  there  he  has  greater 
competition  than  in  the  home  school,  and  he  may  suc- 
ceed in  asserting  his  leadership  over  only  a  small  group 
of  college  mates.  Or  he  may  captain  a  baseball  nine 
or  a  football  team,  or  become  the  head  of  a  secret  so- 
ciety or  the  president  of  his  class. 

"Born  leaders"  of  this  sort,  if  they  go  into  business, 
should  become  executives,  and  will  do  so  if  they  get 
the  proper  discipline  or  training  at  the  start.  As  has 
been  pointed  out  in  this  chapter,  a  man  cannot  be. a 
leader  or  executive  in  business  unless  he  knows  busi- 
ness as  a  man  just  as  he  knew  baseball  or  football  as 
a  youth,  and  he  can  get  this  requisite  knowledge  only 
thru  study  and  experience.  The  "born  poet"  cannot 
escape  the  drudgery  necessary  to  master  the  technic 
of  his  craft;  neither  can  the  so-called  "born  doctor" 
or  "born  artist."  A  youth  who  seems  to  have  the 
qualities  of  leadership  cannot  become  a  leader  or 
executive  in  business  unless  he  first  goes  thru  the  mill 
and  gets  a  mastery  of  business  details. 

If  a  lad  of  that  kind  gets  a  wrong  start  and  is  set 
at  tasks  for  which  he  is  entirely  unfitted,  or  if  he  is 


THE  EXECUTIVE  219 

forced  to  remain  for  years  in  an  environment  which 
smothers  his  best  qualities,  he  will  be  likely  to  de- 
generate and  to  be  notable  in  his  later  years  only  for 
his  restlessness  and  his  domineering  irritability.  The 
"born  leader"  does  not  always,  as  a  man,  find  his  op- 
portunity. The  wrong  environment  may  humble  him. 
Napoleon  was  the  world's  greatest  general  in  modern 
times,  but  if  Fate  had  seized  him  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  and  made  him  serve  for  ten  years  as  conductor 
of  a  Pullman  dining-car,  his  eyes  would  have  lost  their 
terrible  power  and  his  portrait  would  have  had  no 
charm  for  hero-worshippers. 

Responsibility  develops  the  power  of  leadership. 
No  man  knows  his  power  over  men  until  he  has  been 
tested,  just  as  no  man  knows  whether  he  is  brave  or 
not  until  he  has  been  under  fire.  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  a 
graduate  of  West  Point,  who  had  served  in  the  Mexi- 
can War,  was  a  modest  nobody  when  the  Civil  War 
broke  out  in  1861.  But  for  that  war  he  probably 
woidd  have  lived  and  died  in  obscurity.  The  war  de- 
veloped in  him  the  latent  quality  of  leadership  and  he 
became  one  of  the  greatest  generals  of  all  times. 

The  youth  of  twenty  or  twenty-five  contains  many 
a  hidden  promise.  He  does  not  know  his  own  powers 
or  what  his  career  will  be,  and  his  friends  are  in  the 
same  darkness  as  to  his  future.  Hence  it  is  important 
that  young  men  in  business  should  not  be  kepi  for- 
ever at  the  same  task,  for  their  finest  qualities  may 
then  never  be  developed. 

12.  Pay  of  the  executive. — There  is  a  popular  no- 

1—16 


220  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

tion  that  many  of  our  high-class  business  men,  such 
as  the  presidents  of  railroads,  banks  and  insurance 
torn  panics,  arc  paid  higher  salaries  than  they  deserve. 
Plenty  of  people  believe  that  no  man  can  really  earn 
$50,000  a  year.  Yet  there  are  executives  in  the 
United  States  whose  salaries  exceed  that  amount. 

These  high  salaries  are  fixed  by  boards  of  directors 
who  are  anxious  that  their  corporations  shall  be  effi- 
ciently managed.  Friendship,  favoritism,  nepotism, 
politics,  graft — things  of  this  sort  play  no  part  what- 
ever in  the  fixing  of  these  high  salaries.  A  board  of 
directors  which  votes  a  salary  of  $100,000  to  the  presi- 
dent of  a  corporation  would  be  delighted  if  they  could 
get  an  equally  good  man  for  $10,000,  but  they  know 
that  a  $10,000  man  would  prove  a  failure.  They  feel 
certain  that  if  they  engage  the  $100,000  man  instead 
of  the  $10,000  man,  the  corporation's  net  earnings  will 
be  larger  and  the  dividend  rate  higher.  This  means 
simply  that  they  pay  a  man  a  salary  of  $100,000  be- 
cause of  his  producing  capacity,  because  he  can  make 
the  company's  business  so  large  and  profitable  that 
he  is  really  cheaper  than  a  $10,000  man. 

Philip  D.  Armour,  the  great  packer,  once  showed 
a  Chicago  newspaper  man  about  his  office.  It  trans- 
pired that  a  comparatively  young  man  sitting  at  a 
desk  in  the  corner  of  the  big  room  was  drawing  a 
salary  of  $18,000  a  year.  "But  Mr.  Armour,"  said 
the  newspaper  man,  "could  you  not  hire  nine  men  at 
$2,000  a  year  who  could  do  more  than  he  does?" 


THE  EXECUTIVE  221 

"No,"  said  the  millionaire  packer,  "one  hundred 
$2,000  men  could  not  do  the  work  he  does." 

In  Volume  II  of  the  Modern  Business  Texts  the 
reader  will  study  the  law  governing  wages,  and  he  will 
find  that  men  are  paid,  in  the  long  run,  in  proportion 
to  their  power  of  production.  The  executive's  sal- 
ary seems  exorbitant  to  the  day  laborer.  Yet  the 
pay  of  the  executive  and  of  the  laborer  is  determined 
by  the  same  law.  The  wage  of  the  day  laborer  is 
quite  as  likely  to  be  excessive,  or  beyond  his  deserts, 
as  is  the  salary  of  the  executive. 

Executive  ability  is  comparatively  scarce,  muscle  is 
abundant;  hence  the  one  is  dear  and  the  other  cheap. 

A  few  years  ago  a  manufacturing  concern  employ- 
ing five  hundred  men  was  found  to  be  losing  money. 
It  was  selling  goods  for  less  than  their  cost  of  pro- 
duction. The  directors,  thoroly  alarmed,  placed  a 
new  man  in  charge,  a  man  of  experience,  who  in- 
sisted upon  having  absolute  sway  over  all  the  affairs  of 
the  corporation.  He  found  that  the  business  suffered, 
for  one  reason,  because  of  the  high  cost  of  raw  ma- 
terials, and  that  if  its  volume  were  doubled  the  raw 
materials  could  be  purchased  in  large  quantities  and 
more  cheaply.  He  found  also  that  if  the  plant  were 
doubled  in  size,  the  output  per  employe  could  be  in- 
creased and  the  costs,  therefore,  reduced.  Tie  dis- 
covered still  other  ways  of  increasing  the  efficiency  of 
the  plant  and  reducing  costs.  At  the  end  of  a  year 
the  plant  had  been  doubled,  one  thousand  men  were 


BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

employed,  the  wages  of  some  of  the  workmen  had 
been  raised,  and  the  company  was  earning  a  net  in- 
come  at  the  rate  of  15  per  cent  per  annum.  Every 
business  man  of  much  experience  is  familiar  with  in- 
cidents of  this  kind.  If  that  executive  was  paid  a 
salary  of  $50,000  a  year,  who  can  prove  that  he  did 
not  earn  it? 

REVIEW 

Do  you  agree  with  the  statements  of  ancient  and  modern 
philosophers  that  all  mankind  can  be  divided  arbitrarily  into  three 
classes?  If  so,  how  can  persons  rise  from  one  class  to  a  higher; 
if  not,  what  modifications  of  the  statement  would  you  make? 

What  two  types  of  executives  do  you  find  in  the  field  of  busi- 
ness?    Which  type  makes  the  better  executive,  and  why? 

Give  examples  from  your  own  experience  of  initiative,  courage 
and  energy  in  business  and  of  what  they  have  accomplished. 

If  you  were  the  president  of  a  corporation  and  were  obliged 
to  pick  your  subordinates,  how  would  you  be  governed  in  making 
your  selections? 

In  your  own  business,  what  methods  would  you  follow  to  keep 
the  organization  "up  to  par"? 


CHAPTER  XI 

SUBORDINATE  OR  JUNIOR  OFFICERS 

1.  Duties  and  responsibilities. — The  junior  officer 
in  a  business  is  one  who  has  charge  of  a  single  de- 
partment and  is  responsible  to  the  chief  executive  for 
its  proper  conduct.  In  a  corporation  all  the  officers 
are  responsible  to  the  board  of  directors,  but  the  im- 
mediate responsibility  of  each  junior  officer  is  to  his 
chief.  If  he  satisfies  his  chief,  he  has  done  all  that 
the  board  of  directors  has  a  right  to  expect. 

A  junior  officer  may  be  sales  manager,  head  of  the 
production  department,  advertising  manager,  office 
manager,  chief  accountant,  credit  man,  or  chief  of  a 
division  of  a  railroad.  His  employer  delegates  to  him 
his  own  authority  in  a  certain  field  and  expects  from 
him  results  which  he  himself  might  achieve  were  he 
personally  doing  the  work.  Just  as  all  the  generals, 
colonels,  captains  and  lieutenants  of  an  army  are  re- 
sponsible to  their  immediate  superiors  and  finally  to 
the  commander-in-chief  of  the  general  staff,  so  the 
junior  officers  in  a  business  concern  are  responsible  to 
their  immediate  superiors  and  ultimately  to  the  chief 
executive  and  the  board  of  directors. 

A  man  is  entitled  to  be  regarded  as  a  junior  officer 
in  a  business  when  his  work  is  so  important  that  it 

223 


224  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

requires  the  exercise  of  independent  judgment,  dis- 
cretion and  executive  ability.  If  he  merely  has 
charge  of  the  routine  work  of  a  number  of  men,  his 
duty  being  to  see  that  their  work  is  done  on  time  and 
in  the  proper  manner,  he  may  be  a  head  clerk,  but  he 
does  not  rank  as  a  junior  officer,  for  he  has  no  busi- 
ness responsibilities  He  is  merely  a  corporal  in  the 
industrial  army. 

The  junior  officer  is  a  directive  force  in  the  busi- 
ness. In  his  department  he  represents  the  chief.  He 
directs  the  work  of  a  number  of  men.  If  he  makes 
mistakes  the  business  suffers  loss.  If  he  directs  his 
men  wisely,  the  profits  or  good-will  of  the  business  are 
increased. 

In  this  chapter  we  shall  consider  a  few  of  the  quali- 
ties which  junior  officers  must  possess.  Their  work 
is  exceedingly  important.  It  is  from  their  ranks  that 
the  chief  executives  are  chosen. 

2.  Training  and  experience. — It  goes  without  say- 
ing that  the  efficiency  of  a  junior  officer  must  depend 
largely  upon  his  mental  ability,  his  education  and  his 
practical  experience  in  business.  He  should,  indeed, 
possess  all  the  qualities  of  the  efficient  business  man 
and  have  in  him  the  making  of  a  leader.  If  a  man 
has  not  the  quality  of  leadership,  or  if  he  has  a  weak 
body  and  poor  digestion,  or  if  his  mind  has  not  been 
trained  to  think  clearly,  or  if  he  lacks  ambition  and 
will-power,  he  will  be  a  failure  as  a  junior  officer. 

It  should  also  go  without  saying  that  a  man  is  not 
fit  to  direct  any  department  of  a  business  unless  he 


SUBORDINATE  OR  JUNIOR  OFFICERS      225 

has  first  had  experience  in  its  work  and  is  familiar 
with  its  problems  as  well  as  with  its  routine. 

The  accountant  works  up  from  the  ranks  of  the 
bookkeepers;  if  he  has  in  him  the  necessary  qualities, 
the  day  may  come  when  he  will  be  made  chief  execu- 
tive. 

The  sales  manager  must  have  had  experience  as  a 
salesman;  as  a  salesman  he  may  have  displayed  only 
ordinary  ability,  but  his  experience  in  the  field  is  a 
prerequisite,  no  matter  how  great  or  fine  his  man- 
agerial quality. 

The  advertising  manager  may  have  no  special 
ability  as  a  writer  of  advertisements,  and  may  not  have 
been  successful  as  a  solicitor  of  advertising,  but  he 
should  know  all  there  is  to  know  about  advertising 
mediums  and  should  know  thoroly  the  business  which 
it  is  his  duty  to  advertise. 

A  physician  gets  his  practical  experience  in  the  lab- 
oratory and  in  the  hospital.  The  junior  officer  must 
get  his  practical  experience  by  the  patient  perform- 
ance of  routine  labor.  When  a  man  has  mastered 
the  details  of  a  business  and  has  proved  his  quality, 
he  is  eligible  for  the  position  of  a  junior  officer. 

3.  Team  work. — A  dogmatic,  opinionated,  obsti- 
nate man  does  not  make  a  good  junior  officer.  He 
may  have  a  good  mind  and  a  good  education,  and 
may  know  a  great  deal  about  the  business,  but  he 
does  not  pull  together  with  the  others.  He  makes 
smooth  team  work  impossible. 

Every  business  organization   is  a  unit.     The  va- 


286  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

rious  departments  should  be  conducted  in  harmony 
with  a  single  plan,  as  if  one  mind  were  in  absolute 
control.  If  a  junior  officer  thinks  that  a  certain  policy 
is  bad  and  that  a  change  ought  to  be  made,  he  has  the 
right  to  argue  for  his  opinion,  but  if  he  cannot  con- 
vince his  chief  or  a  majority  of  the  junior  officers,  he 
must  drop  the  matter  and  turn  his  energies  to  some- 
thing else.  This  some  men  seem  unable  to  do.  A 
man  of  that  sort  clings  tenaciously  to  his  opinions 
and  cannot  conceal  his  dissatisfaction  when  his  co- 
workers do  not  agree  with  him,  and  decide  to  follow 
a  course  contrary  to  his  opinion.  Such  a  man  is  un- 
consciously capable  of  serious  negligence  in  a  crisis. 
He  never  has  the  entire  confidence  of  his  fellows  and 
should  not  hold  a  position  of  great  responsibility  re- 
quiring cooperation  with  others. 

In  an  ideal  business  organization  the  junior  offi- 
cers pull  together  so  smoothly  and  evenly  that  the 
master's  will  and  purpose  .are  realized  in  every  de- 
partment, a  single  mind  controlling  all. 

4.  Loyalty. — A  junior  officer,  possessing  the  con- 
fidence of  his  employer  and  intrusted  with  important 
responsibilities,  must  be  genuinely  loyal.  He  is  the 
personal  representative  of  the  chief  and  must  not  be 
disloyal  in  word,  deed,  or  thought.  He  must  believe 
in  the  business,  in  the  organization,  in  the  chief;  and 
his  own  job  must  be  so  dear  to  him  that  he  will  under- 
stand well  what  Petrarch  meant  when  he  wrote.  "I 
get  tired  whilst  I  am  resting,  and  rest  whilst  I  am  at 


SUBORDINATE  OR  JUNIOR  OFFICERS      227 

work.  When  I  take  up  my  work,  I  fear  nothing  so 
much  as  having  to  tear  myself  away  from  it." 

A  military  commander-in-chief  wants  no  officers 
under  him  who  are  not  patriots,  who  do  not  helieve  in 
the  cause  for  which  they  are  fighting.  A  man  never 
rights  well  unless  he  is  in  dead  earnest.  A  sub-execu- 
tive in  business,  if  he  is  to  do  his  best,  must  believe  in 
the  importance  and  value  of  the  work  he  is  doing.  If 
he  is  connected  with  a  business  he  does  not  like,  or  is 
under  a  man  whom  he  does  not  respect,  he  should  look 
for  another  connection. 

A  junior  officer  lacking  in  loyalty  may  make  trou- 
ble in  many  different  ways.  He  may  talk  indis- 
creetly about  the  conditions  or  prospects  of  the  busi- 
ness and  give  encouragement  to  competitors.  He 
may  even  reveal  valuable  secrets  of  the  business — an 
act  of  damnable  treachery.  His  careless  words  of 
criticism  may  arouse  discontent  among  the  employes, 
and  chill  the  enthusiasm  of  his  brother  junior  officers. 
A  man  who  is  by  nature  discontented,  ultra-critical 
and  self-centered,  has  not  in  him  the  stuff  out  of 
which  good  junior  officers  are  made.  It  is  almost 
impossible  for  such  men  to  be  really  and  constantly 
loyal  to  anybody. 

5.  Obedience. — Just  as  the  junior  officer  expects 
obedience  from  the  men  under  him,  so  he  must  render 
obedience  to  his  superiors.  The  man  who  cannot  con- 
trol himself  and  render  prompt  and  willing  obedience 
to  others  makes  a  poor  captain  and  will  have  weak 


8*8  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

control  of  his  men.  The  chief  executive  of  a  business 
knows  what  he  wants  done  and  how  it  ought  to  be 
done;  he  gives  the  necessary  instructions  to  his  sub- 
ordinates and  then  turns  to  other  matters,  expect- 
ing that  his  orders  will  be  obeyed  to  the  letter.  If 
the  subordinate,  giving  mere  lip  obedience,  pursues 
a  policy  not  directed  by  the  chief,  thinking  that  he 
understands  the  matter  better  than  his  superior  be- 
cause he  alone  is  familiar  with  all  the  details,  or  be- 
cause the  chief  was  "too  busy  to  get  a  real  grasp  of 
the  situation,"  sooner  or  later  something  decidedly  un- 
pleasant will  happen.  The  subordinate  will  either  get 
a  note  of  dismissal  from  the  chief,  or  be  summoned 
before  the  board  of  directors  to  defend  himself. 

No  man  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  a  business 
will  long  tolerate  under  him  men  who  wilfully  dis- 
obey his  orders.  Obedience  is  a  primal  virtue  in  busi- 
ness as  w-ell  as  in  war. 

6.  Adaptability. — Little  need  be  said  about  the  im- 
portance of  adaptability  in  the  make-up  of  a  subor- 
dinate or  junior  officer.  He  is  not  an  independent 
man  working  alone.  He  is  part  of  an  organization, 
taking  instructions,  giving  instructions,  working  with 
others;  he  must  adapt  himself  to  his  position  so  that 
there  shall  be  the  least  possible  friction. 

The  junior  officer  cannot  be  a  dull  man,  slow  of 
comprehension.  It  must  not  be  necessary  to  explain 
things  to  him  twice.  He  must  understand  his  chief's 
mental  habits  and  modes  of  expression,  and  listen  so 


SUBORDINATE  OR  JUNIOR  OFFICERS      229 

alertly  to  instructions  that  no  words  need  be  wasted. 
This  means  that  he  must  put  himself  into  the  proper 
adjustment  in  his  relations  with  his  superior.  He 
should  be  equally  adaptable,  flexible  and  tactful  in 
his  relations  with  his  equals  and  with  the  men  whom 
he  commands. 

According  to  the  biologists,  adjustment  to  environ- 
ment has  been  an  important  condition  of  survival  in 
the  animal  world.  The  same  principle  applies  equally 
in  business.  A  man  lacking  in  adaptability  or  power 
of  adjustment  should  cultivate  it  if  he  is  connected 
with  a  business  organization. 

7.  Willingness  to  learn. — Some  men  have  a  curious 
distaste  for  instruction.  Often  they  are  well  edu- 
cated, well-read,  industrious  and  studious,  but  if  you 
try  to  show  them  a  better  way  of  doing  anything  you 
will  be  astonished  either  by  their  lack  of  interest  and 
gratitude,  or  by  their  apparent  inability  to  discover 
anything  worth  while  in  what  you  have  to  say.  This 
peculiarity  may  be  the  result  of  conceit,  or  it  may  be 
the  manifestation  of  an  acquired  mental  habit,  the 
mind  being  incapable  of  taking  in  a  new  idea  except 
thru  the  eye,  by  reading.  It  is  a  well-known  fact 
that  the  confirmed  bookworm  often  gets  nothing  what- 
ever out  of  lectures  and  discourses.  He  may  read 
them  greedily,  but  he  does  not  care  to  hear  them,  and 
when  listening  to  them  his  mind  wanders. 

The  real  business  man  is  so  eager  to  learn,  that 
his  ears  as  well  as  his  eves  are  of  service.     He  wants 


280  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

to  know  the  best  way  of  doing  things,  and  if  you  can 
show  him  or  tell  him,  he  will  be  really  grateful,  not 
at  all  irritated. 

The  junior  executive  is  the  man  who  ought  to  get 
the  most  help  out  of  the  Alexander  Hamilton  Insti- 
tute's Modern  Business  Course  and  Service,  for  all 
the  authors  have  had  his  needs  specially  in  mind.  No 
man  knows  how  much  physical  strength  he  might  ac- 
quire, or  how  heavy  the  weights  he  might  be  able 
to  lift,  if  he  were  to  devote  himself  to  the  systematic 
training  of  his  body.  In  the  same  way  no  man  knows 
the  limits  of  his  intellectual  powers,  but  he  may  be 
sure  that  systematic  mental  exercise  will  yield  results 
quite  as  remarkable,  or  startling,  as  any  produced  by 
systematic  physical  exercise. 

Let  the  junior  officer,  therefore,  cultivate  a  taste 
for  knowledge.  The  more  he  reads  and  thinks,  the 
better  will  be  his  understanding  of  all  that  he  hears 
and  sees  in  business,  and  the  more  valuable  will  be  his 
service. 

8.  Ideas  and  initiative. — Because  I  have  insisted 
upon  the  junior  executive's  obeying  instructions  and 
being  adaptable,  in  order  that  there  may  be  smooth 
team  work,  it  must  not  be  assumed  that  he  is  to  be  a 
business  automaton  incapable  of  originality  or  initia- 
tive. It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  he  is  a  sub-execu- 
tive, that  in  his  department  he  represents  the  chief 
executive,  and  that  he  should  be  doing  there  all  that 
the  chief  himself  would  do  if  he  were  there.  If  the 
costs  in  his  department  seem  out  of  proportion  to  re- 


SUBORDINATE  OR  JUNIOR  OFFICERS      231 

suits,  he  must  plan  for  their  reduction  just  as  the 
chief  himself  would  plan.  If  one  of  his  problems  is 
so  baffling  that  the  chief,  if  it  were  his  problem,  would 
take  it  home  and  think  of  it  at  night  and  on  Sundays, 
then  the  sub-executive  himself  must  take  it  home  with 
him.  He  must  be  constantly  planning  to  make  his 
department  more  efficient — that  is,  to  make  results 
bigger  and  costs  smaller. 

Many  of  the  big  ideas  of  business  have  come  from 
the  brains  of  obscure  minor  officers  or  employes.  A 
poor  clerk  in  a  cigar  store  conceived  the  idea  of  the 
great  chain  of  stores  known  as  the  United  Cigar 
Stores.  The  Woolworth  Building  in  Xew  York  City 
is  a  monument  to  the  genius  and  initiative  of  a  lad 
who  was  clerk  in  a  country  store  when  he  discovered 
the  commercial  importance  of  the  nickel  and  the  dime. 
The  history  of  American  business  during  the  last  two 
generations  could  be  made  to  furnish  thousands  of 
similar  illustrations  of  originality  and  initiative  on 
the  part  of  men  in  subordinate  positions. 

The  junior  officer  owes  his  position  to  his  display  of 
intellectual  quality  as  a  routine  worker.  He  knows 
the  steps  up  which  he  has  climbed.  He  should  know 
better  than  anybody  else  where  effort  is  wasted,  where 
time  is  lost,  where  there  is  unnecessary  friction.  I  lis 
chief,  therefore,  has  a  right  to  expect  from  him  ideas 
and  suggestions  that  will  enlarge  the  business  and  en- 
hance the  profits. 

9.  Capacity  for  detail. — As  I  have  already  said,  the 
need  for  the  junior  officer  arises  when   a   business 


BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

gets  so  large  that  one  man  cannot  look  after  all  its 
details,  or  carry  easily  all  its  responsibilities.  Grad- 
ually, as  his  business  grows,  a  man  attends  less  and 
less  to  the  details  and  places  increasing  reliance  upon 
the  subordinates  he  has  selected.  A  single  business 
detail  is  a  very  small  matter,  but  the  details  as  a 
whole  are  tremendously  important  and  must  be  looked 
after  by  men  who  are  competent  and  conscientious. 
It  may  not  matter  much  whether  the  stationery  be  blue 
or  white,  or  whether  employes  be  paid  by  check  or  by 
cash,  or  whether  the  day's  work  shall  begin  at  8  or 
8 :30 ;  but  details  of  this  sort,  taken  together,  make  the 
business  and  are  so  interrelated  that  changes  cannot 
be  carelessly  made.  In  every  department  there  must 
be  system  and  discipline.  Each  worker  must  per- 
form his  task  in  the  way  that  has  been  decided  upon 
as  best.  Letters  must  be  written  and  mailed  on  time. 
Orders  received  must  be  promptly  acknowledged. 
Goods  must  be  shipped  in  accordance  with  the  sched- 
ule. In  no  department  must  there  be  enforced  idle- 
ness thru  lack  of  work. 

It  is  the  important  duty  of  the  junior  officer  to 
see  to  it  that  the  details  of  the  business  belonging  to 
his  department  are  promptly  and  properly  attended 
to.  If  he  really  has  executive  ability,  he  will  never 
make  the  plea  that  he  could  not  clear  his  desk  be- 
cause of  the  great  rush  of  details  that  had  to  be  at- 
tended to.  Long  before  he  is  in  danger  of  being 
swamped  he  will  have  at  his  command  a  subordinate 
to  whom  he  will  entrust  the  handling  of  many  mat- 


SUBORDINATE  OR  JUNIOR  OFFICERS      233 

ters  of  minor  consequence.  He  will  seek,  indeed,  to 
relieve  himself  as  much  as  possible  of  details  in  order 
that  he  may  have  more  time  for  supervision,  plan- 
ning and  direction.  He  must  himself  have  great  ca- 
pacity for  detail  and  he  should  prove  it  by  the  ease 
with  which  he  gets  rid  of  details.  His  chief  will  ex- 
pect him  to  know  all  about  his  department,  the  num- 
ber of  employes,  their  wages  or  salaries,  the  kind  of 
work  done  by  each,  their  ability  and  their  promise  of 
future  development.  In  no  other  way  can  the  chief 
keep  in  touch  with  what  is  going  on  in  the  great  busi- 
ness he  controls. 

10.  His  prospects. — Often  a  junior  officer  who  has 
proved  his  worth  in  an  organization  receives  an  offer 
of  a  higher  salary  from  another  concern.  Shall  he 
accept  and  leave  the  organization  with  whose  affairs 
he  is  so  familiar?  This  is  a  question  that  puzzles 
many  a  junior  officer.  In  no  case  can  we  answer  the 
question  wisely  unless  we  know  and  consider  all  the 
circumstances. 

It  may  safely  be  said,  however,  that  no  junior  of- 
ficer should  resign  his  position  merely  because  of  a 
tempting  increase  in  salary.  There  are  many  tilings 
he  does  not  know,  to  wit :  Will  he  fit  in  with  the  new 
organization?  Will  he  be  as  efficient  there  as  here? 
Will  his  ways  of  doing  things  satisfy  the  new  chief? 
Will  his  prospects  of  future  advancement  be  as  good 
as  now?  Is  the  other  business  likely  to  grow  or  to 
stand  still?  Is  it  controlled  by  men  comparatively 
young  and  full  of  ambition,  or  by  old  nun  already 


284  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

satisfied  with  the  business?  Questions  of  this  sort 
the  junior  officer  must  consider  before  he  is  in  a  posi- 
tion to  decide  upon  making  a  change. 

In  general  it  is  well  for  him  to  bear  in  mind,  espe- 
cially if  he  is  connected  with  a  prosperous,  grow- 
ing business,  that  the  world  looks  with  some  suspicion 
upon  a  man  who  is  moving  from  pillar  to  post.  When 
he  resigns  a  good  position  and  goes  to  another,  most 
people  will  know  merely  that  he  has  made  a  change, 
and  many  will  suspect  that  his  old  employers  made  it 
easy  for  him  to  leave. 

If,  however,  a  junior  officer  is  connected  with  a  busi- 
ness controlled  by  men  who  lack  ambition  and  initia- 
tive, or  who  have  so  much  money  that  they  give  all 
their  time  to  sports,  amusements  and  travel,  and  he  is 
convinced  in  consequence  that  the  business  will  suffer 
from  their  neglect,  he  is  wise  if  he  looks  for  new  con- 
nections. It  is  unfortunate,  of  course,  that  he  has  to 
make  a  change,  but  he  has  the  very  best  of  reasons 
for  doing  so.  A  live  man  should  not  be  tied  to  a 
business  that  is  dying  from  dry  rot. 

REVIEW 

What  distinguishes  a  junior  officer  from  a  chief  clerk? 

If  you  were  going;  to  choose  a  junior  officer  for  your  business, 
what  qualities  would  you  demand  in  him?      Give  reasons. 

What  things  should  a  junior  officer  consider,  aside  from  higher 
salary,  before  leaving  one  position  to  go  to  another? 

Why  cannot  a  dogmatic,  obstinate  man  become  a  good  junior 
officer? 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER 

1.  Men  and  machines. — For  many  hundred  years 
men  have  been  busy  seeking  ways  of  making  their 
work  either  lighter  or  more  productive.  A  certain 
amount  of  muscular  or  mental  activity  is  pleasurable 
and  healthful,  but  when  pushed  beyond  a  certain  point 
fatigue,  discomfort,  exhaustion  and  various  aches 
ensue.  Primitive  man  and  woman  carried  their  bur- 
dens on  their  backs  or  on  top  of  their  heads.  They 
gradually  dropped  this  custom  when  they  found  they 
could  shift  the  work  to  the  backs  of  various  beasts  of 
burden  which  they  had  tamed.  Thus  the  dog,  the 
donkey,  the  ox  and  the  horse  were  trained  to  be  har- 
nessed, and  in  the  course  of  time  it  was  discovered 
that  a  man  and  a  horse,  or  a  man  and  a  donkey,  could 
do  more  work  of  a  certain  kind  than  two  men.  For 
this  increase  of  efficiency  man  claims  and  deserves  the 
credit,  for  without  the  directing  power  of  his  brain 
no  beast  of  burden  would  have  any  industrial  value. 

Next,  or  perhaps  at  the  same  time,  came  the  in- 
vention of  tools  and  machinery.  One  man  with  a 
hand-saw  can  work  up  more  firewood  than  ten  men 
without  the  aid  of  the  saw.  But  sawing  wood  makes 
a  man's  back  ache  and  is  a  most  monotonous  occupa- 

1—17  235 


236  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

tion,  hence  it  is  being  supplanted  by  the  buzz-saw 
operated  by  an  engine,  witli  which  one  man  without 
much  muscular  effort  can  cut  up  more  wood  in  a 
day  than  can  a  dozen  or  more  with  hand-saws.  Over 
half  the  work  that  women  did  fifty  years  ago  is  now 
done  by  machines,  looms,  sewing  machines,  vacuum 
cleaners,  washing  machines,  churns  operated  by  gaso- 
line or  electric  power,  knitting  machines,  hat  ma- 
chines, dish  washers,  tireless  cookers,  etc.,  but  I  need 
not  elaborate  or  give  more  illustrations.  Every 
reader  knows  in  a  general  way  that  tools  and  ma- 
chinery are  now  doing  with  great  accuracy  and  ra- 
pidity a  vast  amount  of  work  which  was  formerly 
done  by  the  hand  of  a  man  or  woman. 

But  it  may  not  have  occurred  to  some  of  my  readers 
that  in  both  business  and  industry  a  lot  of  work  is 
still  being  done  by  men,  women,  boys,  and  girls  which 
is  much  like  that  which  men  have  learned  how  to  un- 
load upon  machines  and  beasts  of  burden.  Much  of 
this  work  is  monotonous  in  character.  The  same  kind 
of  task  has  to  be  done  over  and  over,  day  after  day, 
week  after  week,  for  only  thus  can  the  worker  get 
the  highest  skill  and  speed.  There  are  boxes  to  be 
packed  and  nailed  down,  messages  and  packages  to  be 
delivered,  endless  rows  of  figures  that  must  be  ac- 
curately copied  and  added,  memoranda  and  letters 
to  be  filed  and  recorded,  letters  to  be  written  or  typed 
and  filed,  the  cash  to  be  counted  and  cared  for,  the 
mail  to  be  distributed,  and  so  on  ad  infinitum. 

Readers  who  have  had  any  experience  in  business 


THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER  237 

will  recognize  at  once  the  type  of  work  I  am  talking 
about.  It  can  be  known  by  either  one  of  two  ear- 
marks. First,  it  must  be  done  in  the  prescribed  way, 
the  worker  having  little  or  no  discretion  as  to  the 
method  he  must  adopt;  second,  the  work  calls  for  the 
exercise  of  very  little  brain  power  and  closely  re- 
sembles the  kind  of  work  that  is  already  being  done 
by  machines.  The  man  who  does  this  kind  of  work  in 
business  I  call  the  rank-and-file  or  routine  worker. 
Some  of  the  tasks  are  more  difficult  than  others,  but 
in  general  all  of  them  can  be  performed  after  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  practice  by  any  man  of  ordinary  edu- 
cation and  mental  ability. 

2.  Work  and  responsibility  of  the  rank-and-file 
worker. — I  can  imagine  that  certain  thoughtless  peo- 
ple after  reading  the  foregoing  section  might  feel 
like  skipping  this  chapter  on  the  ground  that  the 
work  of  "men  who  are  little  better  than  machines"  is 
not  worth  thinking  about,  but  I  have  not  said  that 
men  are  little  better  than  machines.  I  have  said 
merely  that  the  men  are  doing  work  very  much  like 
that  which  is  already  done  by  machinery,  and  that  is 
a  very  different  proposition. 

The  work  that  these  rank-and-file  workers  do  is 
exceedingly  important.  For  example,  much  of  the 
concern's  business  may  hinge  upon  the  accuracy  with 
which  its  orders,  instructions,  and  other  communica- 
tions are  transmitted  to  those  with  whom  it  has  deal- 
ings; once  it  relied  much  upon  the  messenger  boy, 
now  it  utilizes  the  telephone  as  well;  but  the  messen- 


;238  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

ger  boy  of  forty  years  ago  was  not  a  negligible  per- 
sonage merely  because  a  mechanical  device  has  been 
invented  that  does  most  of  his  work.  Thomas  Edison, 
by  the  way,  was  once  a  messenger  boy. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  success  of  a  busi- 
ness depends  upon  the  energetic  thinking  and  plan- 
ning done  by  the  executive  and  his  assistants  whom 
we  call  "junior  officers."  All  that  thinking  and  plan- 
ning will  be  futile  if  the  rank-and-file  workers  shirk 
or  blunder.  They  need  the  guiding  mind  of  the 
executive,  but  he  needs  equally  the  work  of  their 
willing  and  capable  hands.  In  a  factory  a  good  fore- 
man will  turn  out  a  botched  job  if  his  workmen  are 
careless,  shiftless  and  incompetent.  A  business  or- 
ganization has  equal  need  of  first-class  routine 
workers.  This  fact  is  so  well  known  by  business  men 
that  many  large  corporations  today  will  not  give  a 
youth  the  humblest  job  until  several  men  have  exam- 
ined him  carefully  and  found  him  to  be  made  morally, 
mentally  and  physically  of  the  right  stuff. 

Let  no  rank-and-file  worker  be  discouraged  be- 
cause his  work  is  like  that  of  a  machine;  the  machine 
is  tied  to  its  job,  but  he  is  free.  The  machine  cannot 
improve  itself;  the  rank-and-file  worker's  potentiali- 
ties are  infinite. 

3.  Training  for  higher  positions. — The  work  of  the 
rank-and-file  worker  is  specially  important  because 
it  yields  that  training  and  experience  without  which 
the  higher  positions  cannot  be  properly  filled.  Thru- 
out  this  book  I  have  tried  to  make  it  plain  that  a  man 


THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER  239 

has  little  chance  of  success  in  a  business  if  he  starts 
in  at  the  top.  Good  business  managers  will  be  found 
almost  without  exception  to  have  served  faithfully 
in  the  beginning  as  rank-and-file  workers.  Vast 
amounts  of  money  are  lost  every  year  by  men  who  go 
into  businesses  which  they  do  not  understand.  The 
young  man  who  inherits  $100,000  from  a  father  who 
did  not  make  him  serve  his  time  in  the  lower  ranks 
is  almost  certain  to  lose  his  fortune  if  he  risks  it  in 
a  business  enterprise.  The  metropolitan  newspapers 
are  full  of  alluring  advertisements  of  "business 
chances." 

A  lawyer  or  a  doctor  who  has  a  few  thousand  dol- 
lars, being  weary  of  his  practice  and  not  satisfied  with 
the  five  or  six  per  cent  he  can  get  from  a  conservative 
investment,  decides  to  give  up  his  profession  and  go 
into  business.  It  does  not  enter  his  head  that  he 
should  take  a  humble  position  and  learn  something 
about  business  before  he  risks  his  money  or  assumes 
to  be  a  manager.  Only  luck  or  good  fortune  can 
save  such  a  man  from  loss. 

In  business,  it  is  much  easier  to  lose  money  than  it 
is  to  gain  it.  It  is  a  game  which  your  opponents  know 
from  Alpha  to  Omega.  That  is  one  of  the  reasons 
why  the  rank-and-file  workers'  tasks  must  not  be 
scorned  or  belittled. 

4.  Choosing  one's  career. — Many  youths  of  eight- 
een are  unable  to  decide  upon  their  career.  Their 
parents  are  at  an  equal  loss.  The  boy  has  gone  thru 
the  high   school  all  right  and  has  been  reasonably 


240  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

studious,  but  he  has  never  shown  any  particular  in- 
terest in  anything  but  sports.  Ought  he  to  study  a 
profession,  or  should  he  go  into  business?  That  ques- 
tion has  been  put  to  me  very  frequently  by  young  men 
and  by  fathers  and  mothers,  and  I  have  always  found 
it  a  difficult  one  to  answer. 

Of  one  thing  I  am  certain.  If  a  young  man  really 
wants  to  be  a  physician  or  a  lawyer,  or  to  enter  any 
of  the  professions  requiring  much  preliminary  train- 
ing and  education,  his  parents  should  not  try  to  make 
him  a  business  man.  If  they  are  too  poor  to  give 
him  a  professional  education,  he  should  master  ste- 
nography and  typewriting  or  bookkeef)ing  and  learn 
to  support  himself.  If  he  has  energy  and  resource- 
fulness he  will  get  his  professional  training  without 
the  aid  of  his  parents,  or  while  seeking  to  earn  his 
living  and  education  he  may  develop  a  taste  for  busi- 
ness, cling  to  it  and  be  successful. 

5.  Certain  cardinal  virtues. — But  if  a  youth  mani- 
fests no  leaning  toward  a  profession,  shall  he  go  into 
business,  or  ought  he  to  learn  a  trade  or  go  to  work 
on  a  farm?  If  he  is  marked  for  a  business  career 
he  will  possess  some  of  the  following  qualities  in  a 
striking  degree : 

First,  he  will  have  an  instinctive,  almost  jealous  at- 
tachment to  those  things  that  are  his  own.  A  youth 
who  lets  others  rob  him  of  his  belongings  without  a 
vigorous  protest  may  be  a  very  fine  and  generous  fel- 
low, but  it  is  doubtful  if  he  was  meant  to  be  a  busi- 
ness man. 


THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER  241 

Second,  he  will  be  inclined  to  be  neat,  systematic, 
orderly,  punctual.     Business  has  use  for  such  men. 

Third,  he  will  be  energetic,  self-reliant,  masterful. 
If  a  youth  is  lazy  and  listless,  his  body  being  in  sound 
health,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  his  sluggishness  is  deeply 
rooted  in  his  nature.  He  will  be  mediocre  in  what- 
ever calling  he  enters,  but  in  business  he  will  be  an 
abject  failure. 

Fourth,  he  will  show  some  taste  for  swapping  or 
trading  with  good  judgment.  The  boy  who  likes  to 
trade  and  swap  and  buys  carefully  has  in  him  certain 
fundamental  elements  of  business  wisdom. 

Fifth,  he  will  not  shirk  responsibility  or  continually 
blame  others  when  things  go  wrong.  Business  is  es- 
sentially a  co-operative  affair  in  which  every  man 
must  do  his  part  in  harmony  with  others. 

A  young  man  entering  business  in  a  humble  position 
among  the  rank-and-file  workers  should  possess  or 
quickly  acquire  certain  virtues  that  are  highly  appre- 
ciated. He  should  be  eager  for  work  and  eager  to  do 
it  right.  He  should  be  conscientious  in  the  perform- 
ance of  every  task,  and  not  pretend  that  a  thing  has 
been  well  done  when  it  has  been  badly  done,  or  only 
half  done.  He  must  not  lose  his  temper  when  blamed 
or  criticized  even  tho  he  feels  sure  that  he  does  not 
deserve  the  blame.  He  must  be  willing  to  do  more 
work  than  he  was  hired  to  do  or  is  paid  for.  He 
must  obey  instructions  and  do  exactly  as  he  is  told 
and  what  he  is  told.  In  business  hours  he  must  give 
his  mind  to  his  work,  think  about  nothing  else  and 


242  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

talk  about  nothing  else.  In  short,  he  must  be  a  faith- 
ful, loyal,  industrious,  obedient  servant. 

But  you  will  ask:  "Does  not  the  rank-and-file 
worker  do  any  thinking?''  The  rank-and-file  worker 
who  does  not  like  to  think,  whose  mind  does  not  re- 
act quickly  in  an  emergency,  is  only  a  machine  and 
sooner  or  later  a  machine  will  take  his  place.  The 
humblest  worker  in  any  business  sometimes  finds  him- 
self confronted  by  a  situation  entirely  new  to  him, 
for  the  handling  of  which  he  has  received  no  instruc- 
tions. He  must  think  and  decide  promptly  what  to 
do.  Then  he  has  a  chance  to  prove  whether  or  not 
he  has  in  him  the  making  of  a  real  business  man. 

6.  The  cheerful  worker. — Few  people  realize  the 
commercial  value  of  cheerfulness.  In  business  the 
youth  of  sunny  disposition,  doing  his  work  gladly  and 
finding  fault  with  nobody,  has  a  thousand  chances 
to  get  on,  where  the  sour-looking,  gloomy,  discon- 
tented fellow  has  barely  one.  The  fat  man  is  not  al- 
ways a  winner,  but  he  has  a  decided  advantage  over 
his  lean  brethren;  he  is  usually  so  cheerful  and  good 
natured  that  people  are  glad  to  have  him  around.  In 
business  it  pays  to  be  an  optimist  and  look  on  the 
bright  side  of  things,  especially  if  you  are  looking  for 
a  job  or  for  promotion. 

To  the  rank-and-file  worker  cheerfulness  is  cer- 
tainly a  valuable  asset.  Cheerfulness  to  be  real  must 
be  in  a  man's  soul.  Its  outward  expression  need  not 
and  should  not  be  in  any  way  effusive  or  conspicuous. 
A  man  who  is  taking  a  hopeful,  cheerful  view  of  him- 


THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER  243 

self  and  his  life  and  his  prospects  need  make  no  ef- 
fort to  prove  the  fact.  He  cannot  conceal  it;  you 
will  see  it  in  his  eyes  and  hear  it  in  his  voice. 

If  a  man  is  not  naturally  a  cheerful  person  he  should 
cultivate  cheerfulness,  not  by  wearing  an  artificial 
smile,  but  by  making  his  mind  always  dwell  on  the 
things  in  this  world  and  in  his  lot  which  are  so  much 
better  than  they  might  be.  Cheerfulness,  I  admit,  is 
under  certain  circumstances  a  very  hard  quality  to 
cultivate. 

The  cheerful  man  who  takes  hard  knocks  with  good 
grace,  who  is  glad  when  you  are  promoted  even  tho 
he  is  not,  who  will  sympathize  with  your  troubles  but 
seems  to  have  none  of  his  own,  has  a  decided  advan- 
tage in  business  over  the  sad-visaged,  gloomy  man  who 
makes  you  feel  somehow  that  you  are  not  doing  him 
justice. 

I  like  to  think  now  and  then  of  the  old  lady  who 
had  lost  all  of  her  teeth  except  two  and  she  thanked 
God  "because  they  hit." 

By  the  way,  altho  it  is  probably  unnecessary,  I 
may  as  well  warn  the  reader  that  by  cheerfulness  and 
optimism  I  do  not  mean  the  sniggering,  thoughtless, 
purposeless  quality  which  animates  the  countenance 
of  the  so-called  "cheerful  idiot,"  nor  do  I  mean  the 
voluble  optimism  of  the  man  who  is  always  gripping 
your  hand,  slapping  you  on  the  back  and  bidding  you 
to  brace  up.  Nobody  has  any  use  for  the  Cheshire 
cat  brand  of  cheerfulness.  It  is  the  expression  of  a 
shallow  soul. 


£44  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

7.  Courtesy. — Many  very  successful  business  men 
have  not  been  conspicuous  examples  of  courtesy  either 
in  their  dealings  with  subordinates  or  in  their  rela- 
tions with  outsiders.  Despite  their  brusqueness  or 
gruffness  or  other  disagreeable  qualities,  they  have 
won  success  because  of  their  great  strength  of  char- 
acter, their  strong  wills  and  their  powerful  intellects. 
When  a  man  has  made  his  mark  in  business,  or  in  any 
calling,  we  are  all  inclined  to  overlook  his  faults.  If 
his  signature  is  illegible,  we  even  think  that  his  bad 
handwriting  is  one  of  the  signs  of  his  greatness,  and 
if  he  speaks  roughly  or  crossly  to  us  we  are  apt  to 
think  that  his  bad  temper  is  also  a  necessary  attri- 
bute of  his  greatness.  The  successful  man  gets  for- 
giveness easily. 

But  the  young  man  must  not  deceive  himself  and 
imagine  that  he  can  get  on  by  imitating  the  faults 
and  defects  of  his  superiors.  He  must  build  for  him- 
self an  ideal  and  use  it  as  the  model  in  shaping  his 
character.  A  very  little  thinking  will  convince  him 
that  courtesy  must  be  an  essential  quality  of  his  ideal. 
Courtesy  in  business  makes  you  treat  every  man  you 
meet  with  such  consideration  that  his  memory  of  you 
will  be  pleasant.  He  may  have  thought  your  price 
too  high  and- have  bought  nothing  from  you,  or  you 
may  have  bought  nothing  from  him  because  his  terms 
were  not  satisfactory;  nevertheless  he  remembers  you 
personally  as  being  a  man  with  whom  it  is  a  pleasure 
to  deal. 

With  the  rank-and-file  worker  courteous  behavior 


THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER  245 

toward  his  equals  and  his  superiors  must  become  a 
habit,  for  he  should  be  able  to  do  or  say  the  right 
thing  at  the  right  moment  instinctively  and  without 
conscious  effort.  If  a  young  man's  home  training  has 
been  deficient,  he  must  study  the  art  of  courtesy,  ob- 
serve its  presence  or  absence  in  the  conduct  of  others, 
and  follow  its  precepts  until  he  finds  himself  uncon- 
sciously doing  the  gracious  thing. 

Good  manners  are  only  the  conventional  marks  of 
courtesy;  they  do  not  constitute  its  essence.  A  gen- 
tleman lifts  his  cap  when  he  meets  a  lady  whom  he 
knows.  He  apologizes  if  he  brushes  against  a 
stranger.  He  appears  at  a  social  gathering  in  ap- 
propriate attire.  He  thanks  his  host  for  the  pleasure 
given.  He  does  not  laugh  uproariously  in  a  place  of 
business  or  any  public  place.  He  respects  his  body 
and  keeps  it  and  his  attire  clean,  neat  and  tidy.  He 
does  not  bring  up  unpleasant  or  disgusting  subjects 
of  conversation.  His  table  manners  are  so  perfect 
that  you  do  not  think  of  them;  you  certainly  never 
hear  him  eat.  I  want  the  rank-and-file  worker  to 
know  that  all  these  conventions,  which  he  may  per- 
haps despise  or  think  lightly  of,  are  rooted  in  courtesy 
or  in  regard  for  the  feelings  and  the  welfare  of  others, 
and  that  if  he  can  make  them  part  of  his  "second  na- 
ture" he  will  find  the  path  ahead  of  him  much 
smoother  and  easier  than  if  he  plunges  on  recklessly, 
roughly,  crudely,  without  much  regard  to  the  rules 
of  politeness  or  good  behavior. 

A  young  man  must  not  get  the  impression  that  the 


£46  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

exercise  of  courtesy  involves  any  lack  of  self-respect 
or  display  of  false  humility.  About  real  courtesy 
there  is  nothing  ingratiating,  humble  or  self-depre- 
catory. King  Edward  VII  was  said  to  be  the  most 
courteous  man  in  Great  Britain,  but  he  did  not  lack 
pride  or  tolerate  any  lack  of  respect  due  to  his  high 
station.  The  most  courageous  man  is  often  the  most 
courteous. 

8.  Personal  appearance. — A  man's  personal  ap- 
pearance is  part  of  his  personality  and  makes  an  in- 
stant impression  upon  strangers.  A  young  man  who 
is  careless  about  his  looks,  priding  himself  on  not 
being  a  fop  or  a  dandy,  may  seriously  lessen  his 
chances  of  getting  on.  A  youth  who  is  courteous  and 
well  dressed,  but  not  over-dressed,  is  always  preferred 
to  one  who  is  awkward  and  uncouth  of  manner  and 
whose  clothes  look  as  if  he  slept  in  them.  Fine,  ex- 
pensive clothing  is  not  necessary.  Dressing  is  an  art ; 
it  depends  more  on  taste  than  on  money. 

Some  years  ago  a  young  man  who  had  proved  him- 
self a  good  student  came  to  me  and  said  he  must  go 
to  work.  Fortunately  I  was  able  to  help  him  get  a 
job  with  a  firm  of  accountants.  A  few  weeks  later 
he  reported  at  my  office  again  and  said  he  was  look- 
ing for  another  place.  "Why  have  you  lost  your  job 
with  the  accounting  firm?"  "Because  work  was  slack 
and  men  had  to  be  laid  off,"  was  the  answer.  I  took 
time  to  examine  him  more  critically  than  ever  before, 
and  then  said  to  him:  "You  never  will  hold  a  job 
unless  you  get  your  hair  cut,  keep  your  finger-nails 


THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER  247 

clean,  keep  your  teeth  white  and  clean,  keep  your 
clothes  brushed,  keep  your  shoes  polished,  and  always 
wear  a  clean  shirt  and  clean  collar."  He  took  my 
advice  sensibly,  brushed  up  his  personal  appearance, 
and  within  six  months  had  a  position  which  paid  him 
$1,800  a  year. 

Business  men  lay  great  stress  upon  personal  ap- 
pearance. If  a  young  man  answers  an  advertise- 
ment and  writes  a  letter  that  pleases  and  commands 
attention,  he  will  be  asked  to  send  on  his  photograph, 
and  the  people  whom  he  has  named  as  references  will 
be  courteously  asked  for  information  with  regard  to 
the  young  man's  character,  ability  and  personal  ap- 
pearance. If  a  young  man's  personal  appearance  is 
not  prepossessing,  he  simply  is  not  wanted  at  all. 

9.  Punctuality. — One  of  the  reasons  why  it  is  a 
good  thing  for  any  youth,  no  matter  what  his  career 
finally  may  be,  to  spend  a  year  in  business  working 
in  some  humble  capacity,  is  that  he  discovers  the  im- 
portance and  value  of  punctuality.  In  a  well-or- 
dered business  the  clock  is  the  tyrant.  Things  must 
be  done  on  time,  engagements  must  be  kept  to  the 
minute,  instructions  must  be  carried  out  not  at  "any 
old  time,"  but  now. 

No  factory  superintendent  wants  a  machine  in  his 
shop  which  every  now  and  then  comes  to  a  standstill, 
or  which  now  and  then  refuses  to  start  in  the  morn- 
ing. Such  a  machine  upsets  all  calculations  as  to  the 
capacity  arid  daily  output  of  the  shop,  and  if  it  can- 
not   be    repaired    and    put    in    first-class    order    it 


248  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

is  scrapped  and  a  new  machine  is  put  in  its  place. 

As  has  heen  frequently  said,  a  business  organiza- 
tion is  in  many  respects  comparable  to  a  factory,  al- 
tho  in  business  most  of  the  machines  are  human  be- 
ings. If  any  employe  is  not  on  time  either  in  per- 
forming his  task  or  in  keeping  an  engagement,  he 
lessens  the  efficiency  of  the  entire  organization.  Busi- 
ness men  know  this  fact  and  therefore  insist  upon 
punctuality. 

For  the  rank-and-file  worker  punctuality  is  a  car- 
dinal virtue;  lacking  it  he  will  not  even  hold  his  job. 

10.  The  man  in  a  rut. — Many  men  both  young  and 
middle-aged  contract  certain  business  habits,  learn 
fairly  well  the  routine  way  of  doing  their  tasks,  and 
then  plod  along  patiently,  faithfully  and  conscien- 
tiously, but  somehow  are  never  promoted.  They  are 
prisoners  of  the  rut  and  do  not  realize  that  their  em- 
ployer does  not  promote  them  for  the  reason  that  they 
have  never  given  him  the  slightest  ground  for  suspect- 
ing that  in  a  higher  position  their  usefulness  to  him 
might  be  increased.  They  are  doing  fairly  satisfac- 
tory work  in  the  jobs  to  which  they  are  accustomed. 
Why  make  any  change  ? 

Today  I  heard  a  man  finding  fault  with  his  secre- 
tary for  having  done  something  in  a  routine  way — i.e., 
without  thinking. 

"But  that's  the  way  it's  always  done,"  pleaded  the 
secretary. 

"I  know  that,"  he  replied,  "but  it's  a  stupid  way 


THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER  249 

and  you  would  have  found  a  better  way  if  you  had 
thought  for  two  seconds." 

Nobody  likes  to  get  into  a  rut.  Is  that  true?  Not 
a  word  of  it.  The  rut  woos  the  young  man  most  se- 
ductively. "Just  come  to  me,"  it  says,  "and  I  will 
make  vou  comfortable.  See  how  easy  I  make  thing's 
for  those  who  love  me.  If  you  will  only  walk  up- 
right in  my  beaten  path  you  will  never  worry  or  get 
wrinkles  or  break  your  legs,  and  your  salary  will  be 
automatically  increased  on  every  New  Year's  Day." 

That  is  the  siren  call  of  the  rut,  and  90  per  cent  of 
young  men  think  it  sweet  music. 

Can  you  imagine  John  D.  Rockefeller  walking  in 
a  rut;  or  Frank  A.  Vanderlip,  or  Jacob  H.  Schiff,  or 
Thomas  A.  Edison? 

"But  those  men  have  extraordinary  brains  and  you 
surely  can't  expect  us  ordinary  fellows  to  do  what 
they  have  done." 

You  are  mistaken.  It  is  not  their  extraordinary 
brains  that  have  made  them  successful.  Those  men 
have  made  good  because  they  were  willing  to  think 
and  because  they  hated  the  rut. 

11.  Hidden  perils. — Many  hidden  perils  lie  in  the 
path  of  the  routine  worker,  all  of  them  apparently  so 
insignificant  that  he  does  not  realize  their  importance. 
In  this  section  we  will  point  out  some  of  the  things 
that  must  not  be  done  if  the  routine  worker  wishes 
to  forge  ahead. 

(a)  He  must  not  visit  in  business  hours.     To  do 


250  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

so  is  to  waste  his  employer's  time.  When  young  men 
and  young  women  are  working  in  the  same  office,  the 
routine  worker  is  often  strongly  tempted,  but  he 
must  not  yield.  In  business  there  is  plenty  of  time 
for  courtesy,  but  not  for  gossip  and  flirtation  or  com- 
pliments. 

(b)  He  must  not  be  sullen  or  grouchy  when  asked 
to  do  extra  work  or  to  work  overtime.  In  all  busi- 
ness organizations  emergencies  arise  which  can  be 
met  only  by  extra  effort  on  the  part  of  some  of  their 
employes.  A  temporary  increase  in  the  volume  of 
business  necessarily  means  extra  work  and  overtime 
for  somebody,  for  it  would  not  be  fair  to  expect  the 
employer  to  keep  on  the  payroll  a  number  of  men 
who  have  nothing  to  do  except  at  extraordinary  times. 
The  ambitious  rank-and-file  worker  should  welcome 
the  extra  work,  for  it  gives  him  a  chance  to  show  his 
mettle,  his  spirit,  his  love  of  work. 

(c)  He  should  not  be  an  envious,  sneaking,  tale 
bearer,  seeking  favor  with  his  superior  by  reporting 
the  misdeeds  or  delinquencies  of  his  fellow-employes. 
It  is  his  business  to  do  his  work  faithfully,  not  to  watch 
his  fellows.  The  tattler  is  always  a  trouble  maker 
in  an  organization.  If  your  employer  wants  you  to 
be  a  spy,  he  will  tell  you  so. 

(d)  He  must  not  come  to  work  in  the  morning  all 
tired  out  because  of  late  hours  of  dissipation.  A  man 
who  has  had  only  half  enough  sleep  is  always  below 
par.  He  usually  thinks  he  can  conceal  the  fact,  but 
he  cannot.     If  late  hours  and  dissipation  are  a  habit 


THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER  251 

with  him,  those  working  with  him  will  soon  know  it, 
and  before  long  he  will  hear  unpleasantly  from  the 
"boss." 

(e)  He  must  not  be  a  sorehead,  forever  complain- 
ing about  his  work  or  his  pay.  A  man  of  that  sort 
is  like  the  one  bad  egg  that  spoils  an  omelet;  he  is  an 
enemy  of  esprit  de  corps,  that  subtle  force  which  is  the 
very  soul  of  the  organization. 

(f )  He  must  not  be  too  easily  discouraged  because 
his  pay  is  not  increased,  others  being  promoted  ahead 
of  him.  He  should,  on  the  contrary,  seek  to  make 
himself  more  valuable  to  his  employer.  If  others  get 
on  faster  than  he,  he  must  search  himself  for  the 
reason. 

(g)  He  should  not  change  employers  without  very 
good  reason.  Business  men  are  always  suspicious  of 
a  man  who  has  worked  for  a  number  of  concerns,  but 
never  long  for  any  one.  They  assume  that  some- 
thing is  wrong  with  him,  and  the  assumption  is  usually 
correct. 

(h)  He  must  not  seek  to  avoid  the  disagreeable 
tasks.  A  man  who  always  wants  a  smooth,  easy, 
pleasant  job,  never  gets  a  high  rating  in  business. 

(i)  He  must  not  be  a  listless,  perfunctory  worker. 
Thruout  the  day  he  must  be  absorbed  in  his  job.  He 
must  give  the  best  of  himself  to  it  then  he  may  be 
chosen  for  high-class  work. 

(j)  He  must  not  make  mistakes  thru  carelessness. 
Ignorance  is  bad  enough  and  may  be  forgiven,  for 
a  routine  worker  is  not  expected  to  know  everything, 

1—18 


sos 


BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 


but  a  second  mistake  of  the  same  kind  cannot  be 
excused  on  the  plea  of  ignorance.  It  is  the  result 
of  carelessness,  heedlessness,  thoughtlessness.  The 
routine  worker  who  blunders  thru  carelessness  is 
usually  not  interested  in  his  work  and  is  letting  his 
mind  wander  away  from  his  job.  The  careless  worker 
soon  comes  to  grief. 

(k)  He  must  not  seek  to  defend  himself  by  lying 
or  misrepresentation.  If  he  has  made  a  mistake,  it 
is  much  better  for  him  to  admit  it  bravely  and  frankly 
than  to  seek  to  shift  the  blame  to  somebody  else.  Em- 
ployers demand  absolute  candor  from  their  employes. 
One  break  of  this  rule  may  give  a  man  a  reputation 
which  will  forever  keep  him  out  of  positions  of  trust 
and  responsibility. 

12.  On  getting  a  start. — Young  men  from  the  high 
school  or  college  are  often  greatly  puzzled  by  the 
seemingly  insurmountable  difficulty  of  getting  a  fair 
start  in  business.  As  a  rule  they  do  not  know  what 
kind  of  business  they  want  to  go  into,  and  even  if 
they  do,  they  do  not  know  how  to  get  their  first  job. 
They  answer  advertisements,  but  are  everywhere  told 
that  men  of  experience  are  wanted.  If  they  are  al- 
ways to  be  turned  down  because  they  have  not  had 
experience,  how  shall  they  ever  get  experience  ? 

A  young  man  looking  for  a  start  in  business  should 
bear  in  mind  three  most  important  things:  First, 
after  advising  with  parents,  teachers  and  friends,  he 
should  decide  just  what  he  wants  to  be.  If  he  finds 
it  impossible  to  decide,  then  let  him  for  a  time  forget 


THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER  253 

the  matter.  Second,  he  should  go  after  his  job  him- 
self, and  not  ask  somebody  else  to  find  a  place  for 
him.  If  unaided  he  lands  his  first  job,  not  only  will 
he  enter  upon  it  with  pride  and  with  some  confidence 
in  himself  but,  more  important  still,  he  will  have 
proved  to  himself  and  to  his  friends  that  he  has  some 
genius  for  business.  Third,  if  he  finds  after  trying 
for  a  time  that  he  cannot  get  the  kind  of  job  he 
wants,  he  should  take  the  first  one  offered. 

Friends  and  relatives  are  always  willing  to  help  a 
young  man  get  his  first  position,  and  it  is  quite  proper 
for  a  young  man  to  make  use  of  such  help  both  in 
finding  the  job  and  then  in  landing  it.  He  will 
doubtless  need  letters  of  recommendation  with  ref- 
erence to  his  character  and  ability,  and  he  should  not 
hesitate  to  ask  his  friends  and  teachers  for  such  let- 
ters. But  it  is  best  that  he  find  his  own  job.  Let 
him  think  of  himself  as  being  already  in  business.  He 
lias  a  job  as  salesman.  He  is  looking  for  a  buyer  of 
his  services.  The  rebuffs  and  disappointments  he  en- 
dures are  the  common  lot  of  most  business  men.  Let 
him  know  that  if  he  gets  discouraged  and  gives  up 
he  is  proving  himself  unfit  for  business. 

The  beginner  should  watch  carefully  the  adver- 
tisements in  the  newspapers,  but  he  must  not  rely  en- 
tirely upon  these.  Many  first-class  business  houses 
never  advertise  at  all  when  they  are  adding  to  their 
force  of  routine  workers.  They  have  other  ways  of 
finding  desirable  young  men;  sometimes  they  use  the 
aid  of  their  own  employes,  or  they  make  known  their 


254  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

wants  to  the  heads  of  high  schools  or  schools  of  com- 
merce or  colleges,  and  sometimes  they  make  use  of 
employment  bureaus.  But  the  beginner  should  watch 
the  advertisements  and  follow  up  those  which  seem  to 
offer  him  a  chance.  If  the  application  is  to  be  sent 
by  mail,  he  should  by  all  means  make  his  letter  brief 
and  to  the  point.  He  will  learn  how  to  do  this  if 
he  reads  carefully  the  Modern  Business  Text  on 
"Business  Correspondence." 

Usually  a  young  man  is  able  to  get  a  clue  to  an 
opening  from  some  of  the  friends  he  has  made  at 
school  who  have  already  got  into  business.  They 
know  the  stuff  he  is  made  of  better  than  anybody  else, 
not  excepting  his  father  and  mother.  They  are  also 
in  a  position  to  hear  of  chances  for  a  new  man.  The 
more  friends  a  young  man  has  made,  the  easier  he 
will  find  it  to  get  a  start  in  business.  If  he  lands 
a  job  by  the  aid  of  friends  he  himself  has  made,  he 
may  credit  himself  with  having  found  the  job;  but 
if  he  lands  it  thru  the  aid  of  his  parents  or  relatives, 
or  their  friends,  he  deserves  no  credit. 

If  he  is  granted  an  interview,  he  should  go  to  it 
well-dressed,  but  not  overdressed.  He  should  ap- 
proach the  business  man  neither  boldly  nor  timidly, 
but  with  modest  confidence  in  himself,  bearing  in 
mind  that  he  has  a  perfect  right  to  be  there.  He 
should  answer  all  questions  with  the  utmost  candor 
and  truthfulness.  When  he  sees  that  the  interview 
is  over,  he  should  leave  at  once — and  not  ask  ques- 
tions. 


THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER  255 

The  youth  who  has  gone  thru  college  or  a  univer- 
sity school  of  commerce,  or  who  has  completed  the 
Modern  Business  Course  and  Service  of  the  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  Institute,  if  he  has  had  no  experience 
in  business,  must  expect  no  special  favor  at  the  start. 
His  advantage  over  the  lad  who  started  in  at  four- 
teen must  be  demonstrated  by  the  quality  he  displays 
in  the  lower  grades  of  business. 

13.  Education  and  advancement. — It  is  not  neces- 
sary here  to  point  out  the  advantage  of  mental  train- 
ing in  business.  A  generation  or  so  ago  business  men 
were  sceptical  about  the  practical  value  of  the  so- 
called  higher  education,  but  today  the  university  man 
has  proved  his  worth  in  business. 

The  question  we  have  to  consider  here  is  what  kind 
of  education  should  the  rank-and-file  worker  have 
had.  There  can  be  only  one  answer.  If  he  wants  to 
become  more  than  a  routine  worker,  he  should  have 
had  in  his  youth  the  best  possible  education  he  could 
obtain.  The  man  with  the  right  hind  of  training,  or 
who  has  mastered  the  Texts  and  literature  of  the  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  Institute,  has  ten  chances  of  advance- 
ment where  the  untrained  youth  has  one. 

It  might  appear  from  what  I  have  said  about  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  the  rank-and-file  worker  that  he  need 
not  do  any  thinking,  his  duty  being  simply  to  get  his 
particular  task  done  properly  and  on  time.  It  is 
quite  true  that  he  is  not  hired  to  think,  and  is  not  paid 
for  thinking,  yet  if  he  is  the  right  kind  of  man  and 
wants  to  get  on,  he  will  do  some  real  thinking.     He 


256  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

handles  the  details  of  the  business  and  is  in  the  best 
possible  position  to  discover  unnecessary  waste,  fric- 
tion or  inefficiency,  and  to  devise  and  suggest  methods 
of  improvement.  The  rank-and-file  worker  whose 
mind  is  alert,  who  comes  forward  now  and  then  with 
a  useful  suggestion,  always  modest  but  self-respect- 
ing, soon  comes  to  be  regarded  as  a  very  promising 
member  of  the  organization  and  is  in  line  for  rapid 
promotion. 

A  man  in  business  who  is  ambitious  to  get  on  rap- 
idly must  rely  not  upon  his  education,  but  upon  the 
power  in  himself  which  his  education  has  helped  to 
develop. 

14.  Wages. — Several  million  men  of  various  ages 
are  toiling  at  the  drudgery  of  business  in  the  United 
States,  and  probably  over  half  of  them  believe  that 
they  deserve  more  pay  than  they  get.  To  the  worker 
his  wage  seems  a  pitiful  one  as  he  compares  it  with 
the  big  salaries  paid  to  the  executives,  or  with  the 
dividends  received  by  stockholders.  He  and  his  fel- 
lows work  hard  every  day;  in  fact,  they  do  all  the 
work ;  the  executives  seem  to  him  to  be  having  an  easy 
time,  and  the  best  paid  man  of  all,  the  chief  execu- 
tive, apparently  has  less  to  do  than  anybody  else. 
Why,  he  asks  himself,  should  the  men  who  do  the  real 
work  in  the  business  have  so  little  share  in  the  profits  ? 
If  he  takes  time  to  read,  he  will  find  his  views  with 
regard  to  his  wages  set  forth  and  defended  in  ap- 
parently scientific  fashion  in  many  books,  periodicals 
and  newspapers ;  and,  as  an  American  citizen,  he  will 


THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER  257 

cast  his  vote  for  the  politician  who  promises  to  advo- 
cate not  only  a  minimum  wage  law,  but  higher  wages 
for  all  workers. 

If  the  worker  dissastisfled  with  his  wages  will  read 
faithfully  the  Modern  Business  Texts,  especially  Vol- 
ume 2  on  "Economics,"  he  will  discover  that  he  should 
be  dissatisfied  not  with  his  wage,  but  with  himself 
and,  to  some  extent,  with  his  ancestors.  A  low  wage 
is  not  a  desirable  thing,  and  it  is  a  pity  that  any  man 
should  have  to  work  eight  or  nine  hours  a  day  and  yet 
receive  in  pay  barely  enough  to  feed  and  clothe  him. 
But  his  employer  is  not  to  blame,  for  his  employer 
does  not  fix  the  rate  of  wages.  The  workers  them- 
selves are  more  responsible  for  the  rate  of  wages  than 
the  employers.  The  residents  of  New  York  City 
complain  of  the  high  rents  exacted  by  landlords. 
Most  of  them  do  not  realize  that  the  rents  are  not 
fixed  by  the  landlord,  but  really  by  the  tenants,  the 
landlord  merely  accepting  the  high  rentals  offered  by 
the  tenants.  Competition  among  the  tenants  of 
houses  puts  up  rents;  in  the  same  way,  competition 
among  workers  keeps  down  wages. 

Under  our  present  industrial  system  a  worker's 
wages  depend  entirely  upon  the  value  of  his  services. 
The  value  of  anything  tends  to  increase  in  propor- 
tion to  its  scarcity.  The  wages  of  clerks,  of  stenog- 
raphers and  of  bookkeepers  are  low  because  these 
callings  demand  little  preliminary  education  or  train- 
ing, and  the  applicants  for  positions  are  usually 
greatly  in  excess  of  the  demand.     Shall  we  blame  the 


258  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

"cruel"  law  of  demand  and  supply,  or  shall  we  blame 
the  parents  who  do  not  make  every  effort  and  sacri- 
fice in  order  that  their  children  may  be  trained  to  do 
more  valuable  service  or  to  work  in  a  field  not  already 
over-crowded?  A  good  stenographer  and  typist,  if 
she  has  had  the  right  mental  training,  may  become  a 
private  secretary,  may  learn  a  great  deal  about  busi- 
ness, and  finally  may  become  a  business  executive. 
But  if  the  stenographer's  education  was  merely  that 
of  the  public  school  with  a  few  months  in  a  business 
college,  the  future  contains  little  promise.  The  job 
is  easy  to  learn  and  too  many  are  after  it. 

The  insufficient  wage  is  like  the  toothache,  the  corn 
or  the  bunion;  it  is  the  product  of  wrong  conditions, 
it  indicates  lack  of  proper  adjustment  to  the  environ- 
ment. If  the  wages  of  routine  workers  in  business 
were  all  raised  at  once,  so  that  no  worker  got  less 
than  one  hundred  dollars  a  month,  sentimental  and 
shallow  people  would  rejoice,  but  the  real  effect  would 
be  evil.  Many  a  man  would  be  robbed  of  the  motive 
for  self -improvement  and  would  stand  still  forever. 
The  low  wage  acts  as  a  spur,  rousing  the  lazy  and  list- 
less, stimulating  the  ambitious,  and  driving  all  into 
their  best  effort.  For  the  man  of  weak  ancestry  and 
poor  training  the  low  wage  is  a  goad  or  whip  to  which 
he  is  almost  unable  to  respond.  That  is  a  sad  fact 
and  the  existence  of  such  men  in  large  numbers  in  a 
civilized  country  creates  a  social  problem  of  the  ut- 
most importance,  but  the  problem  will  not  be  solved 


THE  RANK-AND-FILE  WORKER  259 

by  giving  those  men  higher  wages.  They  and  their 
children  must  be  taught  to  render  to  society  a  higher 
service. 

The  rank-and-file  worker  in  business  should  not 
complain  much  or  often  about  his  wages.  He  should 
seek  rather  to  make  certain  that  he  really  earns  more 
wages  than  he  receives,  that  he  does  more  and  better 
work  than  is  expected  of  him;  then  sooner  or  later  a 
rise  of  wages  is  inevitable. 

REVIEW 

For  what  reason  is  the  work  of  the  rank-and-file  worker  im- 
portant? 

Name  some  qualities  that  a  young  man  will  show  to  a  high 
degree  if  he  is  marked  out  for  a  business  career?  What  quali- 
ties may  he  cultivate  to  advantage  after  entering  business  ? 

Discuss  the  commercial  value  to  a  young  man  in  business  of 
cheerfulness;  courtesy;  personal  appearance;  punctuality. 

If  the  routine  worker  wishes  to  succeed  in  the  business  world, 
what  things  should  he  avoid  doing? 

How  should  a  young  man  proceed  in  securing  his  first  position? 

What  do  you  believe  to  be  the  determining  factor  in  wages? 
If  all  persons  earning  less  than  $100  a  month  were  raised  to 
that  figure,  would  you  regard  it  as  an  evil  or  a  benefit?     Discuss. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

PERSONALITY 

1.  Intuitive  judgments. — A  few  years  ago  a  col- 
lege professor  who  had  had  business  experience  made 
an  experiment  with  members  of  the  entering  fresh- 
man class.  He  had  been  assigned  as  faculty  adviser 
of  some  twenty  members  of  the  class,  and  it  was  his 
duty  to  help  in  the  selection  of  their  studies.  In- 
voluntarily this  college  professor  found  himself  siz- 
ing the  young  men  up — feeling  certain  that  some  of 
them  were  going  to  be  good  students,  others  mediocre, 
others  very  poor. 

It  occurred  to  him  that  in  a  sense  he  was  a  diag- 
nostician and  that  he  ought  to  keep  a  record  of  each 
case.  So  after  each  interview  he  jotted  down  his 
impressions  in  a  note  book.  Of  one  he  wrote:  "Has 
ability,  lots  of  grit  and  energy  and  will  finish  near 
the  top." 

Of  another  something  like  this:  "A  good  mind, 
fairly  well  prepared,  but  lazy  and  pleasure-loving; 
in  college  for  the  fun  of  it;  will  be  a  fraternity  man 
and  a  patron  of  athletics,  but  will  not  shine  in  his 
studies." 

Of  another:  "Has  an  ordinary  mind  and  seems  in 
all  respects  colorless — doubt  that  he  will  finish  his 
freshman  year." 

260 


PERSONALITY  261 

Of  another:  "Able  but  nervous,  excitable  and 
moody — likely  to  break  down  in  health  unless  he  exer- 
cises regularly." 

And  of  three  men  he  wrote  something  like  this: 
"Smart  and  enterprising  fellows,  but  very  conceited. 
They  will  make  trouble." 

At  the  end  of  the  year  the  professor  was  able  to 
test  his  offhand  judgments  by  a  comparison  of  his 
notes  with  results  and  in  almost  every  instance  his  col- 
leagues before  whom  he  laid  his  notes,  admitted  that 
his  first  impressions  had  been  sound. 

Now,  how  did  he  judge  those  men?  Was  he  a 
mind  reader,  a  physiognomist,  a  phrenologist?  Not 
at  all.  He  judged  them  by  no  hard  and  fast  rule, 
but  by  the  common-sense  method  used  by  all  busi- 
ness men  who  have  had  much  experience  in  the  hiring 
of  young  men — merely  by  the  impression  each  made 
upon  him.  This  method  of  judgment  is  sometimes 
called  intuition. 

The  professor  judged  the  students  by  their  per- 
sonalities. He  did  what  business  men  are  doing  every 
day  when  they  are  hiring  employes  or  dealing  with 
strangers.  When  we  meet  a  man  for  the  first  time, 
it  is  his  personality  that  impresses  us,  and  involun- 
tarily we  form  an  opinion  of  him.  The  greater  our 
experience  in  handling  men,  the  more  likely  that  our 
first  impression  will  be  correct.  As  we  talk  with  a 
stranger  we  may  find  that  he  is  more  intelligent  than 
we  had  at  first  supposed,  and  later  when  trying  to 
close  a  deal  with  him  we  may  find  that  he  is  not  quite 


262  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

so  plastic  as  we  had  at  first  believed.  But,  generally 
speaking1,  we  are  surprised  if  we  discover  that  our  first 
impression  was  altogether  wrong. 

2.  Meaning  of  jyersonality. — By  the  personality  of 
a  man  we  mean  those  qualities  which  singly  or  in  com- 
bination distinguish  him  as  an  individual.  All  men 
are  alike  in  certain  important  respects,  but  as  indi- 
viduals they  differ  from  one  another  like  the  leaves  in 
a  forest.  We  never  find  two  men  exactly  alike. 
Shakespeare's  two  Dromios  produce  a  comic  illusion 
of  identity.  The  audience  cannot  distinguish  one 
from  the  other,  but  we  know  that  the  likeness  is  super- 
ficial. 

Involuntarily  and  in  accordance  with  our  experi- 
ence and  training  we  divide  men  into  different  classes. 
The  teacher  thinks  of  students  as  bright  or  dull,  mis- 
chievous or  orderly  and  peaceful,  lazy  or  ambitious. 
The  retail  merchant  wants  his  clerks  to  be  courteous, 
prompt,  accurate,  honest  and  loyal.  If  a  youth 
possessing  these  traits  applies  for  a  job,  the  merchant 
is  favorably  impressed,  altho  he  may  not  know  just 
why.  In  a  way  that  no  science  has  yet  explained  a 
man's  personality  is  stamped  not  merely  on  his  face, 
but  on  his  speech,  on  his  looks  and  on  his  manner. 
Everyone  of  us  carries  a  personality  trade-mark.  Xo 
matter  how  much  we  try  to  hide  or  disguise  it,  men 
of  experience  will  always  see  it  with  a  clearness  that 
seems  uncanny. 

Personality  is  the  man  himself.  It  is  not  what  he 
pretends  to  be  nor  what  he  would  like  to  have  people 


PERSONALITY  263 

think  he  is.  It  reveals  itself  in  different  ways,  some 
of  which  psychology  has  discussed  and  described,  but 
others  are  so  subtle  that  they  baffle  scientific  analysis. 
Hence  in  the  reading  of  personality  we  must  rely 
largely  upon  intuition,  or  as  I  have  said,  upon  com- 
mon sense  backed  up  by  experience. 

3.  Strong  personalities. — When  a  man  is  strikingly 
different  from  most  people  we  know,  we  say  that  he 
has  a  strong  personality.  That  is  our  way  of  recog- 
nizing the  fact  that  he  is  not  just  a  person.  He  is  a 
person  plus  something  extraordinary,  and  this  ex- 
traordinary quality  is  somehow  expressed  in  his  bear- 
ing or  speech.  All  of  us  know  men  who  could  not 
walk  into  a  hall  containing  an  audience  of  entire 
strangers  without  at  once  attracting  attention,  every- 
body feeling  that  here  is  a  man  of  unusual  quality. 

"Who  is  that  young  fellow?  I  want  to  know 
him." 

That  question  was  asked  by  a  successful  business 
man  who  was  about  to  address  a  class  of  college  stu- 
dents. The  face  and  walk  and  bearing  of  a  student 
going  to  his  seat  had  given  rise  to  the  question.  The 
young  man  had  personality.  He  was  ambitious,  eager 
for  work,  tireless. 

Mere  physical  bulk  is  not  essential  to  the  possession 
of  a  strong  personality.  Moral  and  mental  charac- 
teristics are  much  more  important.  Yet  the  tall, 
broad-shouldered,  well-muscled  man,  vigorous  of 
health,  has  undoubtedly  a  certain  advantage  over  a 
smaller  man.     Most  people  are  impressed  by  mere 


264  BUSINESS  ANP  THE  MAN 

size.  Of  two  men  possessing  practically  the  same 
moral  and  mental  qualities,  the  six-footer  usually 
makes  a  better  first  impression  than  the  man  who 
stands  only  five  feet  six.  But  on  a  very  short  ac- 
quaintance we  discover  that  the  two  personalities  are 
practically  on  a  par. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  a  prejudice  in  favor  of  size 
and  there  is  a  reason  for  the  prejudice.  It  is  a  com- 
mon remark  that  the  successful  business  men  of  Amer- 
ica are  as  a  rule  physically  strong  and  energetic.  En- 
vious and  unsuccessful  people  are  sometimes  heard  to 
explain  this  fact  by  saying  that  the  successful  business 
man  is  big  merely  because  his  success  has  given  him  a 
chance  to  be  well  fed,  well  housed  and  free  from  worry, 
and  that  if  he  had  failed  in  business,  he  would  be  as 
lean  and  physically  unfit  as  Cassius. 

A  young  man  need  not  worry  about  his  stature. 
His  success  in  business  does  not  depend  on  that.  He 
may  develop  a  strong  personality  tho  he  be  only  five 
feet  tall.  Let  him  remember  that  Napoleon  was  be- 
low medium  height,  and  that  Jay  Gould,  Russell 
Sage  and  E.  H.  Harriman  were  slender  men.  At 
the  same  time,  a  man  to  make  the  most  of  his  person- 
ality must  take  the  best  possible  care  of  his  body. 

4.  Disagreeable  personalities. — It  goes  without  say- 
ing that  a  strong  personality  may  be  either  attractive 
or  repellent,  and  that  in  business  a  repellent  per- 
sonality is  a  serious  handicap.  There  are  many  dif- 
ferent types   of   disagreeable   personalities,   but   we 


PERSONALITY  265 

will  consider  only  a  few  that  are  commonly  found  in 
business. 

First,  there  is  the  big  "I,"  the  pompous  man  who 
seeks  to  impress  you  with  his  own  importance.  He 
may  be  suave  and  dignified,  or  he  may  be  over-gruff 
and  dictatorial.  He  may  make  you  feel  small  or  he 
may  just  disgust  you.  At  any  rate  you  go  away 
hoping  that  you  will  never  have  to  meet  him  again. 
In  the  language  of  the  street,  he  is  the  "chesty"  man. 

Then  there  is  the  opposite  type,  the  wheedler,  the 
flatterer,  the  man  who  professes  to  think  you  are  "it'' 
and  that  he  is  nothing.  He  is  in  the  Uriah  Heep 
class.  Self-respecting,  sensible  people  do  not  like  to 
do  business  with  such  men. 

Then  there  is  the  egotist,  the  man  of  such  naive 
and  boundless  conceit  that  he  incessantly  boasts  of  the 
great  things  he  has  accomplished.  We  laugh  at  him, 
but  he  bores  us.  His  abnormal  conceit  gives  him 
personality,  but  it  costs  him  many  dollars  if  he  is  in 
trade. 

Finally,  there  is  the  ultra-suspicious  man.  He  is 
an  animated  question  mark  and  insists  upon  all  sorts 
of  information  before  he  will  do  business.  He  prides 
himself  upon  his  intelligence  and  far-sightedness,  and 
always  acts  as  if  afraid  that  you  are  trying  to  deceive 
him.  When  a  business  man  lets  his  fear  of  trickery 
completely  dominate  his  character  and  conduct,  he 
acquires  a  most  objectionable  personality. 

Whether  a  disagreeable  personality  is  strong  or 


266  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

not  depends  upon  the  will  and  determination  with 
which  the  disagreeable  qualities  are  exercised.  The 
man  of  weak  will  cannot  have  a  strong  personality. 

5.  Value  of  personality  in  business. — As  we  have 
seen,  personality  is  the  outward  expression  of  a  man's 
real  self.  If  the  man  is  weak,  vacillating  and  with- 
out ambition,  he  is  said  to  lack  personality.  In  other 
words  his  nature  is  drab,  having  no  qualities  that 
attract  attention.  On  the  other  hand,  if  he  has  cer- 
tain strong  qualities,  being,  we  will  say,  very  self- 
reliant  or  positive  in  his  opinions  or  intensely  inter- 
ested in  his  work,  he  has  personality. 

Evidently  a  personality  which  is  the  expression  of 
desirable  qualities  or  characteristics  will  help  a  young 
man  to  get  a  position,  and  will  help  him  rise  to  higher 
positions.  As  a  rule,  business  men  care  much  less 
about  letters  of  recommendation  than  the  applicant 
for  a  job  imagines.  Let  ten  men  answer  an  adver- 
tisement, all  but  one  having  excellent  references.  If 
the  personality  of  the  tenth  man  is  the  most  attrac- 
tive, the  chances  are  that  he  will  get  the  job,  with 
the  condition  perhaps  that  upon  investigation  his  state- 
ments about  himself  are  confirmed. 

The  reader  must  not  suppose  that  business  men  are 
guided  altogether  by  first  impressions,  for  they  are 
not.  But  when  they  are  looking  for  a  man  to  fill  any 
position,  whether  it  be  a  humble  one  or  a  post  of  re- 
sponsibility, the  impression  made  by  the  applicant's 
personality  is  very  important.  It  may  be  a  good  one 
and  lead  to  further  inquiry,  or  it  may  be  a  bad  one 


PERSONALITY  267 

and  cause  the  applicant  to  be  turned  away  without 
consideration. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  describe  the  many  ways 
in  which  personality  is  helpful  to  a  man  in  business. 
Personality  is  in  a  sense  only  another  name  for  char- 
acter. It  sums  up  the  dominant,  striking  character- 
istics of  a  man.  If  you  say  that  a  man  has  a  strong 
personality,  it  is  the  same  as  saying  that  he  has 
strength  of  character,  that  in  certain  positions  he  will 
be  forceful,  energetic,  efficient.  The  opinions  and 
suggestions  of  a  man  with  strong  personality  are 
listened  to  with  respect,  but  to  the  words  of  a  man 
lacking  personality,  few  men  give  a  willing  ear. 
Hence  personality  of  the  right  kind  is  something  that 
young  men  in  business  should  take  pains  to  cultivate. 

6.  Possibility  of  development. — Many  people  are 
fatalists  and  will  seriously  question  the  ability  of  a 
man  to  change  his  character  in  any  way  as  a  result 
of  his  conscious  efforts.  A  man  born  of  weak-willed 
ancestors  is  certain  in  their  opinion  to  be  cursed  by 
weakness  of  will  thruout  his  life.  If  he  is  born  timid 
and  self-mistrustful,  they  think  no  amount  of  training 
will  make  him  brave  and  self-reliant. 

I  refuse  to  subscribe  to  such  a  philosophy  of  pes- 
simism. Resolute,  purposeful,  regular  exercise  of 
the  brain  or  of  the  will  produces  definite  and  meas- 
urable results.  Every  young  man  knows  that  he  can 
build  muscles  by  faithful  exercise  in  a  gymnasium. 
Discipline  of  the  mind  and  character  perhaps  is  more 
difficult  than  discipline  of  the  body,  but  the  results, 

1—19 


268  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

the  strengthened  will,  the  increase  in  intellectual 
power,  are  not  one  whit  less  certain.  Most  young 
men  fail  to  realize  the  truth  of  this  statement.  If 
they  are  dull  of  intelligence  and  are  ranked  as  dunces 
by  their  teachers,  they  envy  their  cleverer  comrades 
and  accept  their  own  dullness  and  stupidity,  either  as 
a  providential  infliction,  or  as  an  inheritance  from 
their  ancestors.  At  any  rate,  it  seems  to  them  a 
natural  handicap  under  which  they  must  always  labor. 
Fortunately  the  writer  has  known  young  men  who 
have  not  been  crushed  by  their  consciousness  of  in- 
tellectual dullness.  One  such  young  man  came  to 
the  New  York  University  School  of  Commerce  am- 
bitious for  a  higher  education.  He  was  a  machinist 
and  by  long  and  hard  study  at  night  had  been  able 
to  pass  the  state  examinations  which  gave  him  the 
standing  of  a  high  school  graduate.  In  the  Univer- 
sity he  failed  again  and  again  and  became  the  subject 
of  serious  discussions  in  faculty  meetings,  some  of 
the  professors  feeling  that  the  youth  was  wasting  his 
time.  But  he  refused  to  give  up  or  be  discouraged. 
Finally,  after  six  years  of  effort,  he  succeeded  in  ac- 
complishing what  the  average  youth  does  in  three 
years  without  great  effort.  At  the  age  of  thirty  he 
had  successfully  passed  the  state  examinations  and 
become  a  certified  public  accountant.  The  last  word 
from  his  employer  is : 

He  is  faithful,  tireless  and  absolutely  dependable.  He  is 
a  bit  slow  perhaps,  but  that  is  because  he  won't  do  anything 
until  he  is  dead  sure  he  is  doing  it  right. 


PERSONALITY  269 

Since  the  work  of  an  accountant  calls  for  much  more 
than  ordinary  intellectual  power,  it  is  evident  that 
this  youth,  by  his  own  effort  more  than  thru  the  aid 
of  his  teachers,  developed  mental  power  which  he 
would  otherwise  not  have  possessed.  At  the  same 
time  he  strengthened  his  will  and  personality. 

7.  Qualities  a  young  man  should  cultivate. — As 
was  pointed  out  in  the  chapter  on  "Personal  Effi- 
ciency," a  young  man  free  to  choose  a  career  should 
seek  to  develop  to  the  utmost  his  finest  native  char- 
acteristics, and  then  to  get  into  the  occupation  for 
which  he  seems  best  fitted.  But  if  circumstances 
practically  force  him  into  a  certain  business,  then  he 
must  seek  to  develop  in  himself  those  qualities  which 
his  occupation  especially  calls  for. 

There  are,  however,  certain  qualities  which  all 
young  business  men  might  and  should  possess,  no  mat- 
ter what  their  occupations.  The  most  important 
of  these  are  self-control,  self-confidence,  courtesy,  a 
mind  eager  to  know  and  understand,  and  a  resolute 
but  well  disciplined  will.  From  our  present  point 
of  view  these  qualities  are  important  because  of  the 
part  they  play  in  the  building  of  a  strong  per- 
sonality. 

8.  Resolute  will. — The  will  is  usually  thought  of 
as  a  single  quality  of  our  mind.  In  fact,  the  older 
psychologists  divided  the  mind  into  three  parts,  the 
functions  of  which  were  knowing,  feeling  and  willing. 
This  is  now  recognized  as  being  a  crude  and  inade- 
quate classification.     A  human  being  cannot  be  split 


270  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

up  into  parts.  A  man  is  a  single  entity.  His  willing 
is  a  result  of  his  desiring,  and  desire  is  usually  born 
of  knowledge.  So  when  a  man  wills,  his  whole  being 
is  in  action.  Hence  to  cultivate  the  will  means  to 
cultivate  the  whole  man.  There  must  be  no  pretense 
that  tli is  is  an  easy  or  a  simple  task. 

If  a  man  is  born  with  a  small  and  retreating  chin, 
he  will  probably  be  told  before  he  is  twenty  years  old 
that  nature  has  given  him  a  weak  will.  And  then, 
so  strong  is  the  influence  of  what  the  psychologists  call 
suggestion,  he  will  accept  his  wreak  will  as  a  desper- 
ate fact.  Yet  a  weak-willed,  vacillating  man,  if  he 
is  handled  right  and  is  wise  enough  to  handle  himself 
right,  can  become  a  strong,  forceful,  dominating  char- 
acter before  he  is  forty. 

But  is  not  this  paradoxical?  Must  not  a  man  have 
determination,  powrer  of  decision  and  resolution  in 
order  to  cultivate  himself?  And  are  not  these  the 
very  traits  which  the  man  of  w eak  will  lacks  ? 

Undoubtedly  there  is  here  an  apparent  paradox, 
but  it  is  no  more  perplexing  than  the  paradox  which 
confronts  a  physician  treating  a  case  of  chronic  dys- 
pepsia. The  weakness  of  the  stomach  cannot  be  cured 
unless  the  whole  system  is  toned  up  by  digested  food. 
But,  alas!  the  stomach  cannot  digest  food.  It  would 
seem,  therefore,  that  dyspepsia,  once  existing,  should 
be  eternal.  Yet  we  know  that  dyspeptics,  despite 
their  gloom  and  hopelessness,  often  do  get  well.  So 
let  the  man  of  weak  will  take  courage.  His  weakness 
is  not  incurable. 


PERSONALITY  271 

Vigorous  assertion  of  the  dominance  of  will  power 
characterizes  recent  writings.     Read  the  following: 

Yes,  a  thing  invulnerable,  imperishable  is  within  me ;  a 
thing  that  blasteth  rocks ;  it  is  called  my  will. 

Let  the  young  man  know  that  this  "invulnerable 
thing"  is  within  him,  that  he  commands  it,  and  that 
knowing  and  feeling  are  part  of  it.  Then  let  him 
convince  himself  that  his  character,  his  personality 
need  a  stronger  will.  Let  him  picture  to  himself 
the  joy  he  will  find  in  possessing  that  stronger  will 
and  the  advantages  it  will  bring  to  him  in  business  and 
in  all  of  life.  Then  he  will  find  himself  resolutely 
determined  to  do  the  things  that  make  for  strength, 
and  to  shun  the  things  that  make  for  weakness.  And 
his  character  and  his  personality  will  strengthen.  He 
need  not  worry  about  his  chin.  In  time  there 
will  be  subtle  changes  in  his  expression  and  in  every 
act,  which  will  mark  him  clearly  as  a  man  of  resolute 
purpose. 

A  man  of  will  does  not  do  the  things  he  wants  to 
do  if  he  knows  he  ought  not  to  do  them,  and  he  does 
promptly  things  he  dislikes  to  do  if  he  knows  he  ought 
to  do  them.  He  is  not  controlled  by  impulse  or  the 
desires  of  the  senses,  but  by  intelligence  and  desire 
pulling  together. 

9.  Self-control. — Arnold  Bennett  in  his  interesting 
book  called  "The  Human  Machine"  suggests  that  a 
man  should  get  into  the  habit  of  thinking  of  himself 
as  a  machine.     Man  is  certainly  the  most  complicated 


272  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

machine  on  the  earth.  If  you  get  pleasure  out  of  your 
ability  to  control  the  movements  of  an  automobile 
or  of  a  motor  boat  or  of  a  horse,  how  much  more 
joy  should  you  get  out  of  your  power  to  direct 
the  movements  of  that  most  complicated  machine  of 
all — yourself. 

If  a  man  will  spend  an  hour  or  two  every  day 
grooming  and  training  his  horse  or  in  cleaning  and 
tuning  up  his  automobile,  how  can  he  excuse  him- 
self for  neglecting  himself?  A  man  is  exclusive 
owner  of  that  machine — self.  In  the  eyes  of  others 
he  and  the  machine,  self,  seem  one  and  the  same  thing. 
Yet  they  are  not  the  same  thing.  You,  John  Smith, 
are  not  identical  with  your  power  to  remember,  to 
feel,  to  think,  to  live,  to  breathe.  You  are  in  com- 
mand of  a  machine  which  enables  you  to  do  all  those 
and  numerous  other  things. 

By  self-control  we  mean  simply  the  power  to  make 
the  entire  human  machine  do  just  what  we  would 
have  it  do,  and  nothing  else.  You  do  not  enjoy  the 
feeling  of  anger,  but  that  feeling  will  rise  in  your 
heart  unless  you  serve  notice  on  the  will  that  anger 
must  not  be  admitted  unless  it  brings  a  card  of  in- 
troduction from  the  intellect.  Such  feelings  as  envy, 
jealousy  and  hate  must  be  absolutely  barred  out. 
They  are  most  disagreeable  feelings  and  always  in- 
jure you  more  than  they  do  the  people  against  whom 
they  are  directed. 

Perhaps  you  have  a  bad  habit  of  speaking  heed- 
lessly and  thoughtlessly  and  are  therefore  constantly 


PERSONALITY  273 

obliged  to  correct  yourself.  Let  your  will  clearly 
understand  that  the  tongue  must  not  act, without  the 
approval  of  the  intellect.  In  other  words,  you  must 
learn  to  speak  with  deliberation. 

Let  the  will  know  that  temptations  to  excessive  in- 
dulgence in  any  kind  of  pleasure  must  be  promptly 
denied.  In  danger,  do  not  let  yourself  get  excited, 
and  in  critical  emergencies,  do  not  let  worry  enter. 
Worry  and  excitement  are  enemies  of  clear  thinking, 
and  if  you  do  not  think  clearly,  your  machine  will  in 
time  be  ditched. 

Surely  a  young  man  who  conscientiously  seeks  to 
get  control  of  his  own  machine  cannot  fail  to  acquire 
personality  and  to  increase  the  value  of  his  services 
as  a  business  man. 

10.  Knowledge  and  self-confidence. — All  success- 
ful business  men  must  trust  their  own  judgment. 
They  are  self-reliant.  They  have  learned  their  power 
and  they  know  what  they  can  do.  In  the  conduct 
of  their  business  they  do  not  ask  the  advice  of 
other  people.  If  a  totally  new  problem  arises, 
they  rapidly  study  all  its  phases  and  then  make  in- 
stant decision.  They  know  by  experience  that  if  they 
hesitate  or  ask  advice,  or  deliberate  too  long  they 
will  be  lost. 

Self-confidence  is  one  of  the  essentials  to  business 
success.  The  man  who  possesses  it  in  a  high  degree 
lias  a  personality  which  drives  everything  before  it. 

Self-confidence  is  based  upon  knowledge.  A  man 
must  know  his  strength  before  he  can  be  certain  of 


2T4  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

his  ability  to  lift  a  given  weight.  So  a  man  must 
know  the  difficulties  lying  in  the  path  of  his  enterprise 
before  he  can  possess  confidence  in  his  ability  to  over- 
come them.  Knowledge  is  the  only  sound  basis  of 
confidence. 

Hence  young  business  men  seeking  to  strengthen 
their  personality  should  devote  a  good  part  of  their 
time  to  the  study  of  business  principles  and  practices. 
A  youth  who  enters  a  bank  and  is  content  merely  with 
the  mastery  of  the  task  assigned  to  him  will  lack  con- 
fidence in  his  ability  to  do  the  more  difficult  tasks 
higher  up.  But  let  him  study  finance,  and  learn  all 
he  can  about  banking  operations  in  general,  about 
credit,  about  bond  and  stock  markets  and  about  for- 
eign exchange,  then  the  tasks  of  other  employes  of 
the  bank  will  appear  to  him  in  a  new  light  and  con- 
fidence in  himself  will  be  born.  He  will  discover  that 
the  men  above  him  know  but  little  more  about  their 
work  than  he  does  himself,  and  some  indeed  he  may 
find  will  know  even  less. 

Sometimes  we  hear  a  college  graduate  say:  "I  do 
not  know  that  I  learned  anything  in  college  that 
has  been  of  value  to  me,  but  I  am  sure  it  was  worth 
while  to  go  thru  college,  for  it  gave  me  confidence  in 
myself." 

In  a  way  this  view  of  the  value  of  education  is  per- 
fectly sound.  Physicians  say  they  are  taught  much 
in  the  medical  schools  which  they  never  expect  to 
utilize,  and  law  students  pass  examinations  in  many 
branches  which  will  never  possess  any  real  value  in 


PERSONALITY  275 

their  practice.  But  the  young  lawyer  and  the  young 
doctor  must  have  confidence  in  themselves,  and  that 
they  cannot  have  if  they  suspect  that  their  mental 
equipment  is  inadequate. 

11.  Self-confidence  is  not  conceit. — This  is  a  good 
place  to  note  the  great  difference  between  conceit  and 
self-confidence.  Conceit  is  an  enemy  of  success.  It 
is  a  foolish  and  unproved  belief  in  one's  power  or 
ability.  Conceit  rests,  not  upon  knowledge,  but  upon 
vanity. 

The  man  of  supreme  conceit  acquires  an  odious  per- 
sonality. Men  mistrust  him,  for  he  cannot  conceal 
his  conceit.  Your  truly  self-confident  man  may  be 
very  modest  and  claim  little  for  himself.  He  is  satis- 
fied to  show  his  power  by  doing  things.  He  has  no 
fear  at  all  of  being  under-estimated.  But  the  con- 
ceited man,  knowing  in  his  heart  that  he  is  really  not 
what  he  pretends  to  be,  unconsciously  seeks  to  make 
himself  seem  very  important.  So  he  poses,  throws 
out  his  chest,  and  is  found  out. 

The  only  remedy  for  conceit  is  knowledge,  which 
may  be  got  only  by  study  and  thru  experience. 

12.  Courtesy. — Of  all  the  single  qualities  which 
may  be  made  to  lift  a  man  above  the  crowd  and  so 
give  him  personality,  courtesy  would  appear  to  be 
the  Oi  e  easiest  to  cultivate.  If  that  is  true,  it  is  really 
remarkable  that  discourtesy  is  so  often  encountered 
in  the  world  of  business.  In  all  our  large  cities  one 
hears  frequent  complaint  about  the  discourtesy  of 
salesmen  and  dealers.     All  intelligent  business  men 


276  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

know  the  importance  of  courtesy  in  dealings  with 
customers,  but  they  certainly  have  difficulty  find- 
ing employes  equally  wise.  Many  a  retail  business 
has  been  wrecked  by  the  brusque,  unobliging,  critical 
and  sometimes  insolent  attitude  of  clerks. 

The  essence  of  courtesy  is  regard  for  the  feelings  of 
the  other  fellow.  Courtesy  demands  that  you  should 
be  eager  to  save  the  other  fellow  from  disagreeable 
sensations  and  emotions;  that  you  should  not  take 
advantage  of  his  embarrassment,  but  should  seek  to 
make  him  feel  at  ease;  that  the  tone  of  your  voice 
should  be  pleasant  and  betray  no  irritation ;  that  your 
clothing  should  be  neat  and  in  good  taste;  that  you 
should  not  too  vigorously  urge  the  customer  to  buy 
something  for  which  he  does  not  seem  inclined. 

Let  a  young  man  cultivate  cheerfulness,  good  man- 
ners, easy  but  correct  speech,  cleanliness,  and  a  good 
personal  appearance  without  aiming  at  foppery  or 
succumbing  to  conceit,  and  he  will  certainly  achieve 
a  very  desirable  and  valuable  form  of  personality,  and 
at  the  same  time  he  will  be  cultivating  self-confidence, 
will,  and  self-control.  He  will  never  be  mistaken  for 
a  mollycoddle ;  if  he  always  has  in  mind  the  comfort  of 
the  other  fellow,  he  will  never  be  too  suave  or  too 
polite.  A  drop  of  honey  sometimes  is  all  right,  but 
a  bucketful  is  sickening. 

REVIEW 

What  is  personality  ? 

Recall  some  characteristics  which  make  personality  a  handicap. 


PERSONALITY  277 

Explain  how  will  power  dominates  disadvantages  and  devel- 
ops character  and  personality. 

When  is  self-confidence  justified,  and  why  is  conceit  always 
obnoxious  ? 


CHAPTER  XIV 

CHARACTER  ANALYSIS 

1.  Character  and  personality. — Some  of  the  most 
important  words  in  the  English  language  are  the 
hardest  to  define.  Who  can  tell,  for  example,  what 
happiness  really  is?  Who  can  define  love  in  a  way 
that  will  satisfy  a  lover?  Character  is  one  of  these 
indefinable  words.  When  you  know  what  a  man  is, 
how  he  will  think,  feel  and  act  under  certain  circum- 
stances, or,  as  the  psychologists  say,  how  he  will 
"react"  under  various  stimuli,  then  you  know  his 
character. 

Ability  to  judge  character  correctly  is  an  essential 
to  success  in  business.  Most  successful  business  men 
form  quick  and  usually  correct  judgments  as  to  the 
capacity  and  quality  of  the  men  with  whom  they  are 
thrown  into  contact.  Just  how  they  do  it  they  them- 
selves cannot  tell;  indeed,  this  is  a  subject  on  which 
no  scientist  can  yet  speak  with  anything  like  author- 
ity, for  no  complete  and  scientific  study  has  yet  been 
made  of  all  the  physical  manifestations  which  invari- 
ably accompany  various  mental  traits.  In  our  judg- 
ments of  character  we  must  rely  upon  common  sense 
rather  than  upon  any  scientific  rules  of  observation. 

By  common  sense  we  mean  those  judgments  or 

278 


CHARACTER  ANALYSIS  279 

opinions  which  are  generally  accepted  as  true  among 
people  who  are  called  sensible,  the  man  who  does  not 
accept  them  as  true  being  commonly  known  as  a  crank. 
Common  sense  is  the  unconscious  fruit  of  a  multi- 
tude of  experiences  and  observations  common  to  all 
the  people  in  a  community  or  country.  Common 
sense  is  not  carefully  reasoned  out.  When  a  man 
flies  in  the  face  of  common  sense  we  laugh  at  him 
and  will  not  listen  to  his  excuses.  "He  ought 
to  have  known  better  than  to  skate  on  such  thin  ice," 
we  say  when  a  man  breaks  thru  and  is  nearly  drowned. 
If  he  is  an  engineer  and  comes  forward  with  a  care- 
fully prepared  calculation  showing  that  the  ice  was 
thick  enough  to  support  his  weight,  we  are  not  at  all 
interested  or  convinced — he  is  a  mathematical  crank 
and  does  not  get  our  sympathy.  Common  sense  is 
a  despot  who  accepts  no  excuses. 

2.  Does  character  mark  us? — Since  by  the  exercise 
of  ordinary  common  sense  we  do  often  size  up  a 
stranger  with  a  considerable  degree  of  accuracy,  it 
would  seem  to  follow  that  character  is  somehow 
stamped  upon  the  exterior.  I  do  not  see  how  we  can 
escape  from  this  conclusion.  An  expert  breeder  of 
horses,  judging  by  marks  not  noticed  by  the  average 
mart,  quickly  discovers  the  quality  and  value  of 
strange  horses.  The  thorobred  he  recognizes  at  a 
glance;  so  he  does  the  cayuse  or  the  mixture  of  cayuse 
and  thorobred.  Judging  two  colts,  he  knows  that 
one  will  make  a  safe  family  horse  and  that  the  other 
will  be  skittish,  tricky  and  dangerous.     The  same  is 


S80  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

true  of  dog  and  cat  fanciers.  The  animals  are 
marked  by  their  characters  and  the  experts  ean  read 
the  marks. 

When  we  consider  that  each  of  our  thoughts  and 
emotions  is  the  result  of  certain  physiological  changes 
which  bring  pressure  of  some  kind  to  bear  on  what 
we  call  the  will,  either  quieting  it  or  arousing  it  to 
determined  action,  it  would  be  strange  if  man's  phys- 
ical exterior  and  behavior  did  not  correspond  with 
his  inner  or  mental  experiences.  We  know  well 
enough  that  certain  violent  emotions  produce  marked 
changes  in  the  countenance  and  bearing  of  a  man. 
We  are  all  familiar  with  the  signs  of  anger,  fear, 
doubt.  In  an  emergency  the  timid  or  cowardly  man 
involuntarily  betrays  himself,  not  by  his  reluctance 
to  do  something  bold  and  brave,  but  by  the  look  on 
his  face  when  he  tries  to  act  bravely  or  boldly. 

In  the  light  of  such  well-known  facts,  all  of  which 
are  matters  of  common  sense,  we  are  almost  forced  to 
conclude  that  a  man's  exterior  reveals  the  character 
that  is  within  him ;  that,  therefore,  if  a  man  wants  to 
be  thought  truthful  by  his  fellows  he  must  be  truth- 
ful ;  that  if  he  wishes  to  be  thought  brave  he  must  be 
brave;  that  if  he  wishes  to  be  thought  steadfast  and 
purposeful  he  must  be  steadfast  and  purposeful ;  that 
if  he  wishes  to  be  thought  an  ambitious  man  of  high 
ideals  he  must  actually  be  that  kind  of  man.  In 
ways  which  science  has  not  yet  classified  or  analyzed 
a  man's  character  is  stamped  on  his  face,  bearing  and 
manner  of  speech.     It  is  worth  while,  therefore,  for 


CHARACTER  ANALYSIS  281 

us  to  consider  some  of  those  signs  which  help  us  to 
get  an  idea  of  a  stranger's  character. 

3.  Phrenology  and  physiognomy. — We  must  first 
briefly  examine  the  pretensions  of  two  pseudo- 
sciences,  phrenology  and  physiognomy.  The  phre- 
nologist professes  to  be  able  to  read  a  man's  char- 
acter by  an  examination  of  his  cranium.  The  physi- 
ognomist looks  for  the  evidence  of  character  in  the 
face,  laying  stress  upon  the  size  and  shape  of  the  nose, 
the  size  of  the  mouth,  the  thickness  of  the  lips,  the 
chin,  the  ears,  the  jaw,  etc. 

These  two  sciences  are  called  pseudo,  or  false,  for 
the  reason  that  their  conclusions  are  based  upon  im- 
perfect inductions.  Phrenology,  for  example,  locates 
the  memory  near  the  center  of  the  forehead,  and  the 
ability  to  judge  of  color,  size  and  form  just  over  the 
eyes;  philoprogenitiveness,  or  love  of  children,  ama- 
tiveness,  love  of  the  other  sex,  combativeness  and  de- 
structiveness  are  indicated  by  bumps  in  the  back  part 
of  the  head.  Veneration  and  benevolence  are  shown 
by  bumps  at  the  top  of  the  head  in  the  front.  A  man 
with  a  high  forehead,  full  at  the  extreme  right  and 
left,  will  have  great  imaginative  power  and  lean  to- 
ward poetry  and  the  arts. 

The  trouble  with  these  assertions  of  the  phrenolo- 
gist is  that  they  have  not  been  proved  by  careful  or 
scientific  observation.  The  psychologists  say  they 
cannot  be  proved.  The  mind,  says  the  psychologist, 
is  a  complex  thing;  what  the  mental  reaction  of  a  man 
will  be  in  the  presence  of  a  given  stimulus  cannot 


:s  J  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

possibly  be  inferred  by  the  presence  or  absence  of 
any  single  quality.  In  all  their  actions  men  are  con- 
trolled by  a  complex  of  motives  or  desires.  The 
psychologist,  therefore,  is  inclined  to  treat  the  claims 
of  phrenologists  with  scorn. 

Physiognomy  is  also  denied  admittance  into  the 
high  courts  of  science.  That  thick  lips  always  indi- 
cate sensuality  or  love  of  pleasure,  that  the  small 
"snub"  nose  is  a  sign  of  weak  will,  that  the  prominent 
chin  or  jaw  must  mean  firmness  or  obstinacy,  the  scien- 
tific psychologists  will  not  admit,  for  these  statements 
have  not  been  verified  by  repeated  and  impartial 
observation. 

The  business  man  need  not  concern  himself  much 
about  the  claims  of  phrenology  and  physiognomy. 
Even  tho  it  were  granted  that  there  is  a  large  meas- 
ure of  truth  in  the  claims  of  both  of  these  so-called 
sciences,  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  average  busi- 
ness man  to  master  the  technique  necessary  for  a  fruit- 
ful application  of  their  principles.  The  best  he  could 
do  would  be  to  engage  a  properly  trained  employ- 
ment manager  or  a  professional  phrenologist  or  physi- 
ognomist to  pass  on  the  men  whose  characters  he 
wishes  to  be  sure  about,  but  even  then  he  would  be 
obliged  to  rely  upon  himself  in  his  dealings  with  men 
who  were  not  his  employes. 

Phrenology  and  physiognomy,  altho  we  call  them 
pseudo-sciences,  are  undoubtedly  based  upon  a  multi- 
tude of  hit-and-miss  observations  by  all  sorts  of  peo- 
ple.    If  a  stranger  has  a  high  and  full  forehead,  we 


CHARACTER  ANALYSIS  283 

expect  him  to  be  intellectual;  and  if  at  the  same  time 
his  lips  are  full  and  red,  we  shall  be  surprised  if 
he  does  not  greatly  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  the  table, 
for  he  has  what  the  Yankees  call  a  "pie  mouth."  If 
his  neck  is  small  and  the  back  of  his  head  rather  flat, 
we  shall  not  expect  him  to  be  a  very  affectionate  hus- 
band or  father.  We  reach  these  conclusions  involun- 
tarily without  a  thought  of  either  phrenology  or  physi- 
ognomy, and  we  are  all  ready  to  change  our  opinion  if 
later  we  discover  that  our  first  impressions  were 
erroneous. 

It  is  a  fact  that  we  do  make  judgments  of  people 
based  on  the  shapes  of  their  heads  and  the  contour  and 
expression  of  their  faces.  We  do  this  just  as  the  un- 
scientific farmer  judges  as  to  what  crop  he  shall  plant 
in  a  certain  field,  or  just  as  the  old  sailor  reads  the 
signs  of  the  weather.  The  sailor  and  the  farmer  are 
both  unscientific,  but  they  astonish  us  by  the  fre- 
quency with  which  they  "guess"  right.  So  in  sizing 
up  a  stranger,  if  we  have  had  much  experience  with 
men,  it  is  quite  proper  for  us  to  rely  on  the  impression 
he  makes  upon  us  in  the  first  interview. 

We  must  get  our  ability  to  judge  men  mainly  thru 
our  own  experience.  One  who  has  had  little  expe- 
rience with  life  and  who  has  met  but  few  people  would 
be  completely  bewildered  if  he  were  suddenly  brought 
into  contact  with  large  numbers  of  people.  That  is 
one  of  the  reasons  why  farmers  and  respected  citizens 
from  small  towns  are  so  easily  deceived  and  "bun- 
coed" when  they  get  into  the  chaos  of  a  large  city. 

1—20 


284  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

They  have  not  seen  enough  of  dishonesty  and  de- 
ceit to  recognize  the  inevitable  earmarks  of  those  quali- 
ties; and  1  doubt  it'  they  would  be  any  wiser,  or  any 
safer  on  their  first  trip  to  a  large  city,  if  they  had 
made  a  profound  study  of  the  teachings  of  phrenology 
and  physiognomy. 

The  best  that  we  can  say  about  phrenology  and 
physiognomy  is  that  there  is  doubtless  truth  in  the 
main  contentions  of  these  so-called  sciences,  namely, 
that  the  face  and  the  shape  of  the  head  do  somehow 
correspond  to  the  inner  man,  but  the  exact  nature 
of  that  correspondence  science  has  not  yet  discovered. 

Palmistry  would  seem  to  have  less  claims  for  re- 
spectful attention  than  either  physiognomy  or  phre- 
nology. It  is  difficult  to  understand  why  the  lines 
of  the  hand  should  have  any  connection  with  a  man's 
health  or  character,  or  why  large  middle  joints  of 
the  fingers  should  indicate  reasoning  power,  or  why 
fullness  at  the  base  of  the  index  finger  should  mean 
that  the  owner  of  the  hand  is  proud  and  ambitious. 
Since  the  thumb  cooperates  with  each  of  the  four 
fingers,  there  is  some  basis  for  the  claim  that  a  large, 
prominent  thumb  indicates  strength  of  character. 
Since  our  ancestors,  until  within  a  few  hundred  years, 
had  to  do  many  things  with  fingers  which  are  now 
done  with  tools,  the  palmist  is  not  altogether  un- 
reasonable when  he  claims  that  the  splay  or  square 
finger  tip  indicates  energy  and  love  of  work,  while 
the  tapering  or  cone-shaped  finger  means  love  of  ease 
and  luxury. 


CHARACTER  ANALYSIS  285 

The  business  man  cannot  concern  himself  with  such 
details.  It  is  enough  for  him  to  know  that  the  hand 
is  really  an  expressive  part  of  a  man.  If  the  grip  is 
soft,  clammy  and  weak,  we  are  instinctively  repelled; 
we  cannot  help  suspecting  that  the  man  is  selfish,  cruel 
and  indolent.  Or  if  the  strange  hand  grips  us  so  vig- 
orously that  it  makes  us  wince,  we  get  away  from 
it  as  quickly  as  possible;  we  feel  that  the  man  is  too 
eager  to  impress  us.  The  right  kind  of  hand  to  clasp 
is  undoubtedly  an  asset  worth  possessing.  If  the 
flesh  is  firm  and  the  skin  fine  of  texture,  we  get  an 
impression  of  cleanliness,  health  and  good  breeding; 
and  if  the  nails  are  well  kept  but  not  excessively  mani- 
cured, we  feel,  other  things  being  all  right,  that  we  are 
in  the  presence  of  a  gentleman  or,  at  least,  of  a  man 
who  respects  himself. 

4.  Evolution  of  physical  characteristics. — Scientists 
have  made  some  effort  to  explain  the  physical  differ- 
ences of  different  races.  Some  of  their  general  con- 
clusions possess  practical  value.  The  dark-skinned 
races  had  their  origin  in  or  near  the  tropics,  nature 
having  brought  pigment  to  the  surface  to  give  protec- 
tion against  the  intense  or  actinic  rays  of  the  sun. 
The  thick  lips  of  the  native  of  the  tropics  are  the 
product  of  many  thousands  of  years  of  life  amid  an 
abundance  of  food  which  could  be  had  practically 
without  effort.  In  the  tropics  the  lungs  need  no  pro- 
tection against  cold  air;  hence  the  short  nose  and 
splay  nostrils  which  make  breathing  easy. 

In   the   rigorous  climate  of  the   temperate   zones 


£86  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

winter  is  the  enemy  against  which  man  must  protect 
himself,  and  the  summer  is  his  friend.  The  heat  of 
the  summer  is  moderate  and  brief  in  duration;  so 
pigment  in  the  skin  was  unnecessary,  and  the  white 
man  emerged.  He  had  to  do  much  thinking  and 
planning  in  order  to  have  food  and  proper  shelter 
in  the  long  winters ;  hence  the  greater  development  of 
the  brain,  the  larger  cerebrum  of  the  white  than  of 
the  black  races. 

Only  the  strongest  were  able  to  live  and  perpetuate 
their  kind.  Those  who  loved  ease  and  pleasure,  those 
who  did  not  plan  wisely  and  work  hard,  those  who 
shrank  from  exposure  to  the  elements,  who  lacked 
endurance  and  could  not  bear  hardships — all  these 
perished  in  the  course  of  the  ages,  leaving  relatively 
fewer  descendants.  The  men  who  survived  and  dom- 
inated in  the  Xorth  were  those  who  gritted  their  teeth 
in  the  presence  of  obstacles,  who  kept  their  mouths 
firmly  shut  and  breathed  thru  their  noses,  who  had 
developed  the  largest  and  most  active  brains. 

Thus  after  thousands  of  generations  in  the  northern 
climates  the  majority  of  the  people  possessed  thinner 
lips  than  those  living  in  the  tropics;  abstemious- 
ness, resolution,  decision,  pluck  and  firmness  were 
virtues  'that  had  been  forced  upon  their  ancestors. 
Families,  tribes  or  races  that  lacked  these  virtues  died 
off.  The  individual  who  lacks  them  now  is  doomed. 
He  may  marry  and  beget  children,  but  if  his  mate  is 
like  himself,  his  descendants,  if  they  escape  death  in 


CHARACTER  ANALYSIS  287 

childhood  from  insufficient  food,  will  be  in  hospitals 
and  almshouses. 

It  is  supposed  that  the  long  nose  indicates  strength 
of  character  because  it  is  essential  to  the  develop- 
ment of  large  lungs,  which  can  be  obtained  only  by 
such  strenuous  exercise  as  renders  breathing  deep.  It 
is  not  so  easy  to  find  a  hypothesis  that  will  account  for 
the  popular  notion  that  a  square  jaw  is  a  mark  of 
determination.  We  simply  know  by  our  own  expe- 
rience that  when  we  face  a  difficult  or  dangerous  task 
with  determination,  our  jaws  are  set  hard;  whereas 
if  we  shrink  from  it  our  muscles  are  relaxed. 

But  we  need  not  devote  more  time  to  speculative 
matters  of  this  sort.  The  subject  is  introduced  here 
merely  to  give  the  reader  a  hint  as  to  the  evolutionary 
method  of  arriving  at  knowledge.  It  is  a  method  that 
can  be  applied  usefully  in  everyday  life.  Bad  habits, 
for  example,  are  products  of  evolution,  and  unfor- 
tunately the  evolutionary  period  need  not  be  a  long 
one.  A  man's  method  of  conducting  his  business  is 
usually  an  evolution  from  methods  which  were  at  the 
start  much  less  complicated.  The  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  a  man's  character  are  an  inheritance,  but 
many  of  his  traits  are  born  of  his  environment  and 
manner  of  living.  They  are  products  of  an  evolu- 
tionary process  which  has  taken  place  under  his  own 
eye. 

5.  Mental  power. — Business  calls  for  the  exercise 
of  various  qualities.     Some  positions  require  careful 


i>S8  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

attention  to  minute  details,  others  a  combination  of 
tact  and  energy,  others  a  love  of  system  and  order, 
others  the  ability  to  think  quickly  and  straight.  A 
business  man  engaging  an  employe  should  know  what 
sort  of  ability  the  job  demands,  and  then  should  try 
to  pick  the  man  who  possesses  this  in  high  degree. 

First  of  all,  he  must  get  an  idea  of  the  applicant's 
mental  ability  in  general,  for  nobody  wants  in  his 
employ  a  dull  or  stupid  man.  As  I  have  said  al- 
ready, the  full  forehead  rising  fairly  straight  from  the 
bridge  of  the  nose  is  usually  an  indication  of  mental 
power,  but  we  must  not  rely  too  much  upon  this  bit 
of  phrenology,  for  many  very  intelligent  men  have 
fairly  low  foreheads.  But  if  the  forehead  is  low  and 
at  the  same  time  retreating  so  that  a  line  drawn  from 
the  top  of  the  forehead  to  the  bridge  of  the  nose  slants 
a  good  deal  from  the  perpendicular,  the  presumption 
is  that  the  man  lacks  brain  power.  Idiots  usually 
have  such  foreheads. 

It  is  important  to  distinguish  between  the  intense 
mind  and  the  passive,  indolent  mind.  One  man  may 
have  a  very  fine  intellect  and  be  able  under  great 
pressure  to  do  very  clear  thinking  and  yet  be  a  less 
efficient  worker  than  a  man  of  smaller  brain  or  weaker 
intellect  who  is  everlastingly  thinking.  The  one 
makes  blunders  because  of  his  indolence,  his  distaste 
for  activity ;  the  other's  mind  is  constantly  on  the  alert 
in  order  that  he  may  do  things  in  the  right  way. 

The  alert,  intense  mind  operates  usually  behind  a 
forehead  of  medium  height  and  not  of  great  width, 


CHARACTER  ANALYSIS  289 

and  the  head  usually  rests  upon  a  strong  neck  and  a 
body  with  firm  flesh,  full  chest  and  strong  stomach. 
The  constitutionally  indolent  mind,  by  which  I  mean 
the  mind  lazy  not  merely  because  of  some  temporary 
cause  like  indigestion  or  auto-intoxication,  is  quite 
commonly  found  under  the  very  high  forehead,  espe- 
cially if  it  is  attached  to  a  body  with  a  contracted 
chest  and  weak  diaphragm.  When  a  narrow-chested 
student  with  a  high,  full  forehead  who  has  shown  his 
intellectual  ability  by  passing  difficult  examinations 
comes  to  me  for  advice  as  to  his  career,  I  prescribe 
chest  and  abdominal  exercises.  "Do  not  waste  your 
leisure  by  reading,"  I  say  to  him,  "but  put  in  your 
time  profitably  by  building  up  hard  abdominal  and 
chest  muscles.  You  are  like  an  engine  which  has  a 
boiler  several  times  too  large  for  the  fire-box."  Just 
an  ordinary  mind  with  plenty  of  driving  power  back 
of  it  can  accomplish  wonders. 

6.  Practical  tests. — The  best  way  to  get  a  positive 
line  on  a  man's  mental  ability  is  by  talking  with  him. 
If  you  find  out  what  kind  of  books  he  has  been  read- 
ing during  recent  years,  you  will  know  what  sort  of 
food  his  mind  likes.  If  he  has  read  periodicals  and 
books  of  a  thoughtful  nature,  you  will  give  him  one 
credit  mark.  Finding  out  what  subjects  he  is  in- 
terested in  you  will  get  him  to  talk  about  them,  and 
without  his  suspecting  the  purpose  of  the  conversa- 
tion, he  will  soon  be  giving  you  his  opinions  or  con- 
clusions with  respect  to  matters  concerning  which  you 
yourself  have  some  information. 


290  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

To  get  the  best  results  each  applicant  for  a  posi- 
tion should  receive  individual  analysis,  yet  it  is  pos- 
sible to  learn  a  good  deal  about  a  man's  mental  ability 
by  the  intelligence  he  displays  in  answering  a  set  of 
form  questions  prepared  for  general  use  with  all  ap- 
plicants. Many  large  business  firms,  before  they  will 
even  consider  an  applicant  or  grant  him  an  inter- 
view, make  him  first  answer  in  writing  numerous  and 
varied  questions  about  himself,  his  parents,  his  educa- 
tion, his  tastes,  his  reading,  his  habits,  his  former 
places  of  employment  and  why  he  left  them,  his  am- 
bition, the  salary  he  expects,  etc.  A  man  writing 
answers  to  such  questions  cannot  fail  now  and  then  to 
show  how  his  mind  works.  Are  the  answers  brief  and 
to  the  point?  Then  the  chances  are  that  he  thinks 
clearly  and  is  not  consumed  with  vanity.  Are  the 
answers  vague  and  diffuse?  Then  his  mental  power 
is  below  the  average. 

Of  course  in  judging  the  mental  ability  of  any 
young  man,  one  must  always  make  allowance  for  his 
training,  whether  at  home  or  in  school.  A  youth 
coming  from  a  poor  family,  whose  playmates  have 
been  rough  and  ill-bred  and  whose  "book-learning" 
has  been  got  in  night  schools,  will  not  do  himself 
justice  on  a  written  test,  and  will  suffer  by  comparison 
with  young  men  who  have  had  the  advantage  of  a  re- 
fined home  and  excellent  teachers. 

7.  Will-power. — We  discussed  the  will  in  the  chap- 
ter on  "Personality"  and  found  it  to  be  a  complex 
faculty  which  keeps  us  driving  toward  the  object  of 


CHARACTER  ANALYSIS  291 

our  desire.  A  man  is  constantly  getting  returns  from 
his  emotions  or  feelings,  his  imagination,  his  memory 
and  his  intellect,  and  is  making  decisions  which  the 
will  must  execute.  When  a  man  insists  upon  carry- 
ing out  a  purpose  upon  which  he  has  decided,  or  upon 
which,  as  we  say,  he  has  set  his  heart,  and  cannot  be 
turned  back  by  persuasion  or  unforeseen  obstacles, 
we  call  him  a  man  of  strong  will.  Such  a  man  gets 
a  reputation  of  doing  whatever  he  sets  out  to  do. 

But  if  a  man  is  pertinacious  and  contumacious 
merely  about  trifling  matters,  whether  of  conduct  or 
of  opinion,  we  call  him  stubborn  or  obstinate  rather 
than  strong  willed.  Vanity,  pride,  self-conceit  are 
the  parents  of  obstinacy;  they  are  not  evidences  of 
strong  will. 

Will  is  an  expression  of  a  man's  whole  self  and  is 
strong  only  when  the  personality  behind  it  is  strong. 
The  man  who  knows  positively  what  he  wants  and 
whose  intellect  gives  its  approval  or  disapproval  in 
no  uncertain  terms,  so  that  he  does  not  wabble  or  re- 
consider his  course,  is  a  man  of  strong  will.  If  he  is 
a  bad  man  he  is  dangerous;  if  he  is  a  good  man,  he 
does  a  lot  of  fine  things  that  weak  people  think  im- 
possible. 

A  business  man  of  strong  will  is  invaluable,  but 
your  small  obstinate  man,  however  intellectual,  is  a 
nuisance.  So  in  selecting  employes  we  should  give 
preference,  other  things  being  equal,  to  the  men  who 
show  signs  of  will  power. 

The  phrenologists  locate  will  in  the  rear  apex  of  the 


892  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

cranium  at  the  spot  where  most  men  begin  to  get 
bald.  The  physiognomists  discover  it  in  the  large 
nose,  firm  thin  lips  and  square  jaw,  but  we  do  not 
need  these  signs  in  order  to  recognize  the  man  of  will. 
The  applicant  for  a  job  will  unconsciously  tell  us 
what  kind  of  will  he  has.  Does  he  enter  our  office 
in  a  hesitating,  uncertain  manner?  Does  he  tell  us 
what  he  wants  clearly  and  positively?  Does  he  look 
as  tho  he  were  determined  to  get  this  job?  Or  is  his 
manner  dejected  and  hopeless?  Does  he  sit  upright 
in  his  chair  and  come  back  at  us  with  definite  answers 
to  all  questions?  Does  his  face  bear  marks  of  dissipa- 
tion? Does  he  spend  his  leisure  at  parties,  dances, 
theaters  and  ball-games  ?  If  not,  why  does  he  employ 
any  part  of  his  leisure  otherwise  than  in  having  pleas- 
ure? When  he  leaves  your  office,  having  been  told 
that  his  name  will  be  put  on  file,  is  his  head  up  on  his 
shoulders  or  do  his  shoulders  droop  and  does  his  head 
hang  in  discouragement? 

The  man  of  strong  will  does  not  give  up.  Nowhere 
in  the  world  has  he  a  better  chance  to  prove  his  will 
than  in  that  toughest  of  all  jobs,  namely,  looking  for  a 
job.  A  man  who  can  walk  the  streets  for  several 
days,  answering  this  advertisement  and  pursuing  that 
clue  without  landing  a  position,  and  yet  preserve  his 
nerve  and  his  resolution  to  keep  on  until  he  succeeds, 
has  will  and  will  finally  "get  there."  The  man  who 
has  never  had  to  walk  the  streets  in  search  of  a  job  has 
missed  a  very  important  if  not  essential  discipline.  It 
helps  build  the  will  to  make  character. 


CHARACTER  ANALYSIS  293 

8.  Stability  and  reliability. — There  is  a  certain  type 
of  man  who  is  comparatively  useless  in  business  be- 
cause no  employer  ever  feels  certain  just  what  to 
expect  from  him.  Such  a  man  may  have  the  best 
intentions  in  the  world,  being  honest  and  honorable, 
yet  every  now  and  then,  for  some  reason  or  other,  he 
falls  down  and  gives  his  employer  a  painful  shock  of 
disappointment.  Why  should  such  a  good  man  prove 
a  fizzle  in  this  particular  emergency?  Sometimes 
this  type  of  man  will  work  overtime  willingly  and 
prove  a  regular  Hercules.  At  another  time,  just 
when  you  need  him  most,  you  may  not  be  able  to  get 
a  full  day's  work  out  of  him. 

Instability  of  character  originates  either  in  the  emo- 
tions or  in  the  liver.  Some  men,  as  we  all  know,  are 
much  more  sensitive  than  others.  They  are  called 
thin-skinned  and  are  easily  wounded,  while  others  are 
said  to  have  the  hide  of  a  rhinoceros,  absolutely  im- 
pervious to  ordinary  verbal  bullets. 

The  very  sensitive  man,  if  he  has  a  lively  imagina- 
tion and  is  pleasure-loving,  runs  the  risk  of  excessive 
introspection.  He  will  think  too  much  about  his  own 
feelings  and  emotions,  and  at  times  these  will  seem 
the  most  important  things  in  the  world  to  him.  Those 
are  the  times  when  his  employer  will  be  disappointed. 
In  poets,  painters  and  other  artists  we  call  a  disposi- 
tion of  this  sort  "temperamental."  In  art  "tempera- 
ment" may  be  an  asset,  in  business  it  is  certainly  a 
liability. 

Using  the  word  "liver"  in  the  old-fashioned  way, 


294  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

as  a  generic  term  to  embrace  all  the  digestive  machin- 
ery, we  may  justly  say  that  the  liver  is  responsible  for 
much  instability  of  character.  Unless  a  man  has  a 
most  determined  will  and  is  owner  of  the  do-or-die 
spirit,  he  will  be  an  unreliable  worker  if  his  brain  is 
now  and  then  clouded  by  poisons  from  the  intestines. 
Such  a  man,  constitutionally  good-natured,  every  now 
and  then  develops  a  grouch  much  to  the  amazement 
of  his  acquaintances.  Drugged  by  the  secretions  of 
bacilli  feeding  off  his  own  tissues,  he  becomes  gloomy, 
despondent,  irritable,  dissatisfied  with  his  job.  His 
one  thought  is  to  get  home,  have  a  good  supper  and 
then  have  a  long  night's  sleep;  and  his  last  wish  be- 
fore he  falls  into  the  land  of  nightmare  is  that  some- 
thing may  happen  that  will  make  it  unnecessary  for 
him  to  rise  early  and  go  to  his  job. 

This  type  of  unstable  man,  of  course,  can  be  cured, 
for  his  auto-intoxication  is  the  result  of  improper  liv- 
ing. If  he  is  in  your  employ  and  you  wish  to  save 
him,  make  him  go  to  a  wise  physician  and  let  him 
know  that  he  will  be  fired  if  he  is  not  a  new  man  within 
six  months.  He  will  think  you  cruel  and  unreason- 
able, but  if  he  believes  you  mean  it  he  will  follow  your 
advice  and  thru  exercise  and  right  living,  will  be- 
come the  man  God  meant  him  to  be.  In  the  chapter 
on  "Health"  there  are  a  few  paragraphs  which  a  man 
of  this  type  might  read  with  profit. 

A  third  cause  of  instability  is  found  in  dissipation. 
A  man  who  easily  surrenders  himself  to  the  pleasures 
of  the  senses  cannot  be  depended  upon  for  steady 


CHARACTER  ANALYSIS  295 

work.  He  may  be  very  intelligent,  strong-willed  and 
ambitious  and  at  his  best  may  be  a  most  valuable  em- 
ploye, but  if  in  a  bad  environment  he  has  formed  the 
habit  of  excessive  indulgence  in  any  pleasures  of  the 
senses,  he  is  unreliable  in  business  and  his  unreliability 
will  be  most  in  evidence  and  most  harmful  in  those 
critical  moments  when  you  want  from  him  the  very 
best  that  is  in  him. 

It  is  not  easy  to  discover  this  man  in  one  interview 
or  after  one  examination.  Continuous  dissipation  of 
any  sort  leaves  marks  on  the  face  which  an  experi- 
enced man  can  read,  but  the  signs  of  periodical  dis- 
sipation disappear  in  a  few  days.  Dissipation  may 
take  the  form  not  merely  of  beer  and  whiskey  drink- 
ing but  also  of  joy  riding  in  automobiles,  of  gorging 
at  dinners,  of  late  hours  at  places  of  amusement,  or  of 
incontinent  indulgence  in  any  kind  of  sense  satisfac- 
tion. As  a  rule,  the  men  who  are  given  to  these  ex- 
cessive indulgences  of  the  senses  are  not  men  of  will 
and  purpose,  but  they  are  men  hard  to  read  at  first 
sight.  The  man  who  goes  on  periodical  sprees  is  a 
good  deal  of  a  mystery.  In  his  sober  moments  he 
may  be  as  temperate  and  self-controlled  as  a  stoic. 

9.  Energy,  or  love  of  work. — Energy  is  from  a 
Greek  word  meaning  force  or  power.  It  is  respon- 
sible for  all  that  takes  place  in  the  universe.  Man 
gets  his  energy  from  the  food  he  eats  and  digests  and 
from  the  air  he  breathes.  In  the  same  way  an  auto- 
mobile gets  its  energy  from  a  mixture  of  gasoline 
and  air  in  the  carbureter.     A  man's  body  is  his  engine, 


296  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

and  the  power  he  can  get  from  it  depends  upon  the 
use  he  makes  of  his  lungs  and  stomach.  If  he  does 
not  give  his  engine  the  right  kind  of  food  and  air,  he 
will  have  little  power  or  energy.  He  will  not  be 
worth  much  as  an  employe  in  any  business. 

A  business  man  likes  employes  who  love  their  work. 
The  normal  animal  loves  activity.  Activity  has  made 
us  survive  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  Inactivity 
has  meant  sluggishness,  disease,  death.  Hence  it  is 
natural  that  an  employer  should  expect  his  men  to  go 
at  their  tasks  without  a  sigh.  He  knows  that  men 
who  groan  over  their  work,  whether  thru  weariness  or 
distaste,  can  never  do  it  well.  Hence  he  does  not 
like  a  weakling ;  he  wants  about  him  men  who  are  full 
of  power,  who  are  so  charged  with  energy  that  their 
work,  however  routine,  seems  a  joy  rather  than  an 
exhausting  task. 

The  first  essential  to  energy  is  a  sound  body.  An 
applicant's  physique  and  the  general  conditions  of 
his  health,  therefore,  should  be  noticed.  Does  he 
measure  more  around  the  waist  than  around  the  chest  ? 
Then  he  will  get  tired  easily.  He  has  exercised  his 
palate  and  stomach  a  good  deal  more  than  he  has  his 
muscles  and  lungs.  Is  he  prompt  and  resourceful 
in  conversation?  As  you  have  changed  from  subject 
to  subject,  does  his  mind  follow  you  eagerly?  Then 
you  may  conclude  that  he  is  energetic,  that  he  will  not 
be  a  shirker. 

There  is  a  certain  kind  of  energetic  worker  who 
seems  to  belie  what  I  have  said  about  the  necessity 


CHARACTER  ANALYSIS  297 

of  physical  health  and  strength  as  a  basis  for  energy. 
It  is  the  man  who  is  said  to  accomplish  great  tasks 
merely  "on  his  nerve."  Most  of  us  know  men  of 
this  kind.  Delicate  of  constitution  and  frequently 
under  the  doctor's  care,  they  go  at  their  work  with  the 
energy  of  a  giant  dynamo.  Men  of  this  sort  are  not 
exceptions  to  the  rule.  They  merely  prove  by  their 
great  energy  that  in  judging  of  energy  we  must  con- 
sider the  mind  as  well  as  the  body.  A  man  of  active 
intellect,  dominated  by  some  passion  or  overpower- 
ing ambition  or  idea,  may  be  so  intense  in  his  desire 
to  achieve  results  that  he  will  put  what  seems  to  be 
superhuman  energy  into  his  effort.  Such  a  man,  if 
his  body  is  weak,  is  not  a  good  subject  for  life  in- 
surance. "He  burns  the  candle  at  both  ends."  He 
dies  or  goes  to  a  sanitarium  long  before  the  days  of 
old  age.  If  we  meet  such  a  man,  we  shall  recognize 
him  by  the  intensity  of  his  interest  in  the  thing  he  is 
doing  or  is  about  to  do.  He  will  want  to  be  at  the 
new  task  immediately.  You  will  know  at  once  that 
he  is  a  man  who  will  need  to  be  held  with  a  tight 
rein  if  he  is  not  to  race  himself  to  death. 

10.  The  dishonest  or  tricky  man. — The  man  who 
wants  to  cheat  you  or  to  take  advantage  of  you  in 
any  way  usually  makes  the  mistake  of  seeming  too 
anxious  to  please  or  serve  you.  So  when  a  stranger 
flatters  us  and  talks  much  about  our  good  judgment, 
it  is  time  for  us  to  be  on  our  guard  and  be  on  the 
lookout  for  danger  signals.  The  man  who  lies  usually 
betrays  himself.     Sometimes  he  is  unable  to  look  you 


298  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

squarely  in  the  eye  for  any  length  of  time.  If  your 
eyes  are  fixed  upon  him,  his  eyes  may  meet  yours  only 
fitfully.  Or  he  may  not  be  willing  to  diseuss  the 
reasonableness  of  any  proposition  he  is  making;  in 
his  opinion  its  reasonableness  is  self-evident;  he  would 
not  think  of  arguing  about  it  with  a  man  so  intelligent 
as  you  are. 

In  examining  an  applicant  for  a  position,  it  is  com- 
paratively easy  to  discover  whether  his  mind  works 
honestly  or  not.  If  he  is  determined  to  please  you 
and  get  the  job  even  tho  he  has  to  lie,  you  will  dis- 
cover his  state  of  mind  by  a  little  shrewd  questioning. 
In  the  beginning  he  will  deny  that  he  has  any  vices 
or  bad  habits,  or  that  he  has  ever  been  discharged 
from  any  position.  If  you  engage  him  in  general 
conversation  and  do  not  appear  to  be  cross-examining 
him,  you  will  get  him  to  talk  about  his  companions, 
the  sports  and  amusements  he  enjoys  most,  how  he  got 
his  education,  what  kind  of  student  he  was,  etc.  If 
he  says  that  he  was  a  good  student  and  got  high  marks, 
you  will  have  to  verify  this  thru  a  letter  to  the  school- 
authorities.  Did  he  enjoy  the  work  he  did  for 
Smith  &  Brown?  Was  he  well  treated?  Why  did 
he  leave?  By  a  little  questioning  of  this  sort  any 
man  of  experience  can  very  quickly  decide  whether 
an  applicant  is  frankly  and  fully  telling  the  truth, 
or  whether  he  is  evasive  and  tricky  in  his  replies. 

11.  Tact. — In  almost  every  calling  tact  is  a  useful 
trait;  in  certain  business  positions  it  is  absolutely  es- 
sential.    Tact  secures  its  end  without  leaving  any 


CHARACTER  ANALYSIS  299 

sting.  When  you  have  done  business  with  a  tactful 
man,  you  feel  that  you  have  been  treated  fairly  and 
with  quite  as  much  consideration  as  you  deserve;  that 
the  world  after  all  is  not  such  a  bad  place  to  live  in. 

Tact  never  hurts  anybody.  It  is  a  product  of 
brains  and  sensibility.  A  stupid  man  cannot  be  tact- 
ful, for  he  will  do  or  say  the  wrong  thing  and  hurt 
people's  feelings  without  intending  to.  The  tactful 
man  must  also  have  fine  sensibilities.  If  his  senses 
are  dull,  if  his  sympathies  are  not  easily  stirred,  if 
he  has  a  bull  dog's  indifference  to  pain  or  a  Borgia's 
ruthlessness  in  inflicting  suffering,  he  cannot  be  tact- 
ful, for  he  will  never  know  when  he  is  hurting  people. 

The  dress  of  the  tactful  man  will  be  unconsciously 
modelled  after  the  advice  of  Lord  Karnes:  "That 
man  is  best  attired  who  is  so  dressed  that  no  one  thinks 
of  his  clothes."  The  over-dressed  man  may  excite 
the  other  fellow's  envy  or  make  him  feel  ill  at  ease. 

The  man  of  tact  will  talk  little  about  himself.  He 
likes  to  hear  the  other  man  talk.  Without  seeming 
to  be  pugnacious  or  controversial,  he  says  just  enough 
on  the  other  side  of  a  question  to  give  the  other  man 
the  satisfaction  of  winning  a  victory.  A  tactful  man 
lets  himself  be  bested  in  an  argument,  if  the  matter 
is  not  a  vital  one,  whenever  he  notes  that  his  oppo- 
nent's vanity  would  be  wounded  by  defeat.  Yet  he 
is  not  always  yielding.  The  "unanimous  man,"  who 
is  forever  agreeing  with  you,  gets  on  your  nerves. 
In  the  long  run  the  palate  likes  best  the  sweets  that 
contain  a  little  sour. 

I— M. 


300  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

The  tactful  man  does  not  shake  your  hand  too  long 
or  too  hard,  does  not  insist  on  your  sitting  down  if 
you  prefer  to  stand,  does  not  repeatedly  urge  you  to 
go  to  lunch  with  him  after  you  have  once  declined, 
but  he  makes  you  feel  that  he  really  wants  your  com- 
pany. He  makes  no  references  to  your  losses  or 
misfortunes,  but  if  you  refer  to  them  you  are  certain 
that  he  is  sympathetic  and  is  not,  like  some  other 
people,  holding  you  responsible  for  them. 

The  tactful  man  is  an  adept  in  the  use  of  what  the 
psychologists  call  "suggestion."  When  he  is  dealing 
with  a  blunt,  callous,  thick-skinned  man  he  is  usually 
blunt  and  direct  himself,  because  the  other  fellow 
likes  and  is  used  to  being  dealt  with  in  that  manner; 
but  if  he  wishes  to  persuade  such  a  man  or  bring  him 
over  to  a  new  point  of  view,  then  his  tact  will  make 
him  approach  his  purpose  indirectly  thru  suggestion. 
There  is  in  all  of  us  a  contrary  streak,  and  when 
anybody  tries  to  show  us  why  we  are  in  the  wrong 
our  intellect  gets  busy  and  sets  up  a  defense  which 
seems  to  us  absolutely  impregnable.  Hence  reason- 
ing with  a  man  sometimes  only  roots  him  more  deeply 
in  error.  As  the  familiar  saying  goes  "The  man  con- 
vinced against  his  will  is  of  the  same  opinion  still." 

If  you  are  a  tactful  man,  you  will  bring  the  other 
fellow  around  to  the  desired  conclusion  so  skilfully 
that  he  will  think  the  idea  is  all  his  own  and  that  he 
is  telling  you  something  quite  new.  Perhaps  you 
will  raise  some  objections  and  give  him  the  joy  of  bat- 
tering them  down.     Or  if  he  is  very  contrary,  or  a 


CHARACTER  ANALYSIS  301 

bit  hostile  to  you  and  your  friends,  you  may  take 
a  hint  from  Benjamin  Franklin's  autobiography. 
Franklin  wanted  Philadelphia's  first  fire  engine 
painted  red,  but  he  had  many  enemies  and  they  were 
very  jealous  of  his  growing  influence  in  the  town; 
so  when  his  advice  was  asked  as  to  the  color  he  said, 
"anything  but  red;  I  hate  that  color."  The  engine 
was  promptly  painted  red. 

One  word  more  about  tact,  by  way  of  warning. 
Pussy-footing  is  not  tact.  Tact  has  plenty  of  back- 
bone. Tact  is  grounded  in  good-will  and  sympa- 
thetic knowledge  of  human  nature.  A  pussy-footer, 
one  who  is  all  smiles,  harmony  and  agreement,  is  a 
mental  and  a  moral  coward. 

REVIEW 

Discuss  the  statement  that  our  character  is  stamped  on  our 
exterior. 

How  far  should  a  business  man  be  guided  by  the  claims  of 
phrenology,  physiognomy  and  palmistry  in  judging  persons? 
Mention  a  better  basis  of  judgment. 

If  you  were  considering  a  man  for  your  employment,  how  would 
you  determine  his  mental  qualifications  ?  What  is  the  value  in 
having  an  applicant  for  a  position  fill  in  the  questions  on  an 
employment  form  ? 

From  your  own  experience  what  would  you  consider  to  be  the 
value  in  business  of:  (a)  will  power;  (b)  stability  and  reliabil- 
ity ?     What  are  the  causes  of  instability  ? 

Granted  that  energy  is  necessary  to  a  business  man,  what  is 
its  first  essential? 

What  conduct  on  the  part  of  an  applicant  for  a  position  rouses 
the  suspicion  that  lie  is  tricky? 

What  are  the  determining  characteristics  of  a  tactful  man? 


CHAPTER  XV 

OPPORTUNITY 

1.  Universally  desired. — All  of  us  have  wants  and 
are  looking  for  opportunities  for  their  gratification. 
The  intensity  of  our  nature,  the  quality  of  our  char- 
acter, the  tenacity  of  our  purpose,  are  all  revealed 
by  the  vigor  or  sloth  with  which  we  pursue  oppor- 
tunity. It  is  one  of  the  most  important  words  in 
language.  It  means  much  more  than  chance. 
Chance  comes  to  us  unasked,  unexpected,  and  often 
undesired,  but  opportunity  comes  only  as  the  result 
of  our  desiring,  willing  and  acting.  It  is  a  precious, 
golden  thing  and  must  be  worked  for. 

Men  who  succeed  in  business  somehow  seem  never 
to  lack  opportunity,  while  those  who  fail  often  com- 
plain that  opportunity  has  been  denied  them.  On 
account  of  the  importance  of  opportunity  in  business 
it  has  seemed  to  me  necessary  to  devote  a  chapter  to 
a  consideration  of  the  various  conditions  that  develop 
or  create  it.  Young  men  trying  to  get  their  start  in 
business  should  have  a  fairly  clear  idea  of  what  op- 
portunity means.  They  are  too  prone  to  think  that 
their  chances  of  getting  a  good  start  depend  upon 
"pull"  or  luck. 

2.  Growth  creates  opportunities. — In  a  country 
where  business  is  at  a  standstill,  population  not  in- 

302 


OPPORTUNITY  303 

creasing,  no  fresh  capital  accumulating,  no  new  wants 
developing,  opportunity  cannot  flourish.  In  such  a 
country  a  definite  amount  of  business  is  done,  and 
the  demand  for  the  services  of  men  is  comparatively 
fixed ;  young  men  are  able  to  get  into  business  only  as 
the  older  ones  drop  out;  they  are  waiting  for  dead 
men's  shoes.  In  such  a  country,  business  opportuni- 
ties, like  insurance,  are  a  matter  of  calculation  and 
prediction. 

But  in  a  growing  country  like  the  United  States, 
where  conditions  are  constantly  changing,  where  in- 
ventions are  forever  improving  processes,  where  mar- 
kets are  widening,  business  opportunities  are  as  plen- 
tiful as  in  the  fabled  "Eldorado."  The  vacuum 
cleaner  displaces  the  broom  and  builds  new  fortunes. 
In  a  decade  the  automobile  develops  the  latent  love 
of  travel  and  fresh  air,  gives  rise  to  an  insistent  de- 
mand for  good  roads,  and  creates  industries  of  gi- 
gantic proportions.  The  commercial  motor  truck 
brings  opportunity  to  the  manufacturer,  making  him 
independent  of  the  railroad.  The  automobile  has 
greatly  augmented  the  value  of  farm  property,  and 
has  made  it  possible  for  large  farms  to  be  operated  on 
a  business  basis.  The  rising  prices  of  food-stuffs  due 
to  the  growing  population  have  opened  up  to  farmers 
opportunities  for  profit  which  were  unknown  to  the 
farmers  of  fifty  years  ago. 

On  account  of  the  rapid  changes  taking  place  in 
the  industrial  and  commercial  life  of  the  United 
States,  the  great  increase  in  wealth,  the  consumer's 


804  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

buying  power,  the  broadening  of  markets,  a  business 
man  today  is  surrounded  by  opportunities  much  more 
numerous  and  attractive  than  any  known  to  his  father. 
3.  Business  opportunities  increasing  in  the  United 
States. — We  often  hear  people  remark  dejectedly 
that  business  opportunities  are  not  what  they  used  to 
be ;  that  the  small  man  has  no  longer  any  chance ;  that 
great  corporations  have  absorbed  all  the  opportuni- 
ties for  making  money,  and  that  a  man  now  cannot 
hope  to  be  more  than  an  employe.  That  kind  of 
talk  is  radically  erroneous.  It  is  true  that  a  great 
part  of  the  country's  business  is  conducted  by  men 
organized  in  the  form  of  a  corporation,  hut  there  is 
no  ground  for  the  statement  that  corporations  kill 
opportunity.  On  the  contrary,  they  create  oppor- 
tunities. Many  of  the  successful  business  men  of  to- 
day, who  have  great  executive  ability  and  have  ac- 
cumulated fortunes,  were  lifted  from  obscurity  by 
the  needs  of  corporations.  If  the  necessary  statistics 
were  collected  by  the  census  bureau,  I  have  no  doubt 
we  should  discover  that  a  majority  of  our  successful 
business  men  began  life  as  poor  boys  and  worked  up 
to  the  top,  not  in  spite  of  corporations,  but  because 
of  the  opportunities  opened  up  to  their  abilities  by 
the  corporate  form  of  business  control.  And  I  feel 
confident  thai;  the  same  statistics,  if  they  should  be 
gathered  twenty  years  hence,  would  then  warrant  a 
similar  conclusion.  The  notion  that  business  oppor- 
tunities are  relatively  decreasing,  that  the  good  things 
of  the  earth  have  already  been  pre-empted  by  others, 


OPPORTUNITY  305 

and  that  newcomers  from  now  on  must  be  satisfied 
with  scraps,  is  utterly  fallacious.  It  is  born  of  a  com- 
plete misunderstanding  of  the  nature  of  opportunity. 

4.  Variety  and  opportunity. — The  great  variety  of 
human  wants  is  one  of  the  fundamental  causes  of 
opportunity.  The  capacities  or  talents  of  men  are 
almost  infinite  in  their  variety.  But  their  wants  are 
equally  varied,  and  so  it  happens  that  among  a  civil- 
ized, wide-awake,  energetic  people  no  man  can  fail 
to  find  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  his  particular 
talent. 

Furthermore,  opportunity  is  created  by  the  grow- 
ing desire  for  a  harmonious  combination  of  want  satis- 
factions. In  dietetics  this  desire  for  harmony  leads 
to  combinations  of  foods  which  will  most  please  the 
palate.  A  French  table  d'hote  dinner  is  not  the  prod- 
uct of  accident  or  chance,  but  of  a  psychological  law, 
the  aim  being  to  have  the  sequence  of  dishes  such  that 
there  shall  be,  not  repletion  and  surfeit,  but  a  cre- 
scendo of  satisfaction,  the  last  dish  pleasing  the  palate 
more  than  the  first. 

As  the  wants  of  society  increase  and  multiply,  new 
opportunities  open  up  in  business.  The  catalogs  of 
mail  order  houses,  presenting  a  fairly  complete  list 
of  the  ordinary  comforts,  luxuries  and  necessities  of 
today,  contain  hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of  articles 
which  would  not  have  been  found  in  similar  catalogs 
made  in  1890.  Our  ideas  of  comfort  and  luxury  have 
changed,  and  every  change  has  brought  opportunity 
in  business. 


,306  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

If  a  sculptor  should  attempt  to  represent  oppor- 
tunity in  a  statue,  I  suspect  that  he  would  be  puzzled 
by  the  discovery  that  his  goddess  needed  new  features 
and  a  new  gown  every  day,  for  opportunity  is  the 
child  of  change  and  progress.  Thousands  of  men  do 
not  recognize  her  when  they  meet  her;  they  may  know 
how  she  looked  yesterday  or  last  month  when  she 
guided  John  Doe  to  success,  but  in  her  new  dress  to- 
day she  is  a  stranger.1 

Men  who  are  blind  to  opportunity  are  always  mere 
imitators.  They  imagine  that  if  they  imitate  the 
policies  and  tactics  of  certain  successful  men  they 
themselves  will  succeed,  not  realizing  that  the  men 
whom  they  imitate  were  not  themselves  imitators, 
but  men  whose  penetrating  vision  saw  thru  all  the 
disguises  of  opportunity. 

5.  Is  there  a  law  of  opportunity? — Broadly  speak- 
ing a  business  opportunity  is  a  combination  of  cir- 
cumstances that  creates  for  us  a  profitable  market 
for  something  which  we  have  to  sell  or  may  be  able 
to  produce.  If  this  definition  is  correct,  we  cannot 
accept  the  old  proverb  about  opportunity  always 
knocking  once  at  every  man's  door,  for  opportunity 
does  not  knock  at  any  man's  door.  Man  himself 
must  perceive  the  conditions  which  make  opportunity 
and  promptly  take  possession.     If  a  man  perceives  an 

i  Lysippus,  a  Greek  sculptor,  represented  opportunity  as  a  beautiful 
youth  with  winged  feet.  His  hair  was  long  over  the  forehead,  but  the 
back  of  his  head  was  bald,  signifying  that  an  opportunity  once  allowed 
to  pass  could  never  be  recovered. 


OPPORTUNITY  307 

opportunity  to  increase  his  business  or  to  start  a  new 
business  and  does  not  act  vigorously,  the  opportunity 
is  lost  to  him.     Somebody  else  seizes  it. 

I  think  we  may  formulate  a  law  of  opportunity  as 
follows :  Opportunity  offers  itself  to  men  in  propor- 
tion to  their  ability,  their  will  for  action,  their  power 
of  vision,  their  experience  and  their  knowledge  of 
business.  Inversely,  opportunity  is  concealed  from 
men  in  proportion  to  their  slothfulness,  their  reliance 
upon  others  and  their  passion  for  imitation. 

Evidently  opportunity  in  business  is  not  merely  a 
chance  to  make  money  which  any  man  may  act  upon 
if  he  is  lucky  enough  to  discover  it.  An  excellent 
opportunity  may  exist  in  the  presence  of  hundreds 
of  men,  and  yet  not  be  seen  by  any  one  of  them,  or 
they  may  all  lack  the  necessary  ability  or  experience 
and  be  unable  to  take  advantage  of  it.  To  such  men, 
owing  to  their  unfitness,  it  is  not  opportunity  at  all, 
but  merely  a  set  of  business  conditions  awaiting  the 
eye  of  the  master  man. 

If  our  law  of  opportunity  is  correct — and  I  believe 
it  is — no  man  has  any  right  to  complain  about  his 
lack  of  opportunity,  or  to  set  up  in  defense  of  his  fail- 
ure the  claim  that  he  never  really  had  a  chance.  Op- 
portunity is  clearly  a  relative  term.  On  the  one  side 
are  the  business  conditions  pregnant  with  profit,  on 
the  other  side  is  the  fit  man  able  to  call  the  profit  into 
existence.  When  these  two  meet  we  have  opportu- 
nity.    For  the  ignorant  man  of  weak  will  and  no  ex- 


308  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

perience  there  can  be  no  opportunity.  Nobody  seeks 
his  services  however  cheaply  he  offers  them.  In  the 
current  of  affairs  he  is  merely  driftwood. 

6.  Opportunity  and  ability. — It  is  important  that 
a  man  in  business  should  have  a  fairly  correct  idea  of 
his  mental  power.  He  should  not  underestimate  his 
ability,  for  then  he  will  never  do  himself  justice,  be- 
ing fearful  lest  he  tackle  a  job  too  difficult  for  him. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  must  not  overestimate  his  abil- 
ity, for  then  he  may  undertake  tasks  for  which  he  is 
not  really  fitted.  As  a  rule,  it  is  wise  to  err,  if  at  all, 
in  the  direction  of  self-confidence.  A  man  who  is 
working  in  company  with  men  abler  than  himself,  or 
who  does  not  hesitate  to  attack  a  problem  which  seems 
a  little  beyond  his  powers,  will  often  make  mistakes, 
but  in  the  long  run  he  will  be  more  successful  than  if 
he  practises  excessive  caution,  for  he  will  all  the  time 
be  growing  stronger  and  wiser. 

Some  men  make  excellent  bookkeepers,  but  can 
never  become  expert  accountants  because  they  lack 
the  necessary  mental  quality.  No  man  likes  to  ad- 
mit that  his  mental  powers  are  limited  or  below  the 
average.  As  an  English  philosopher  once  remarked : 
"We  are  all  willing  to  admit  that  our  memories  are 
defective,  but  no  man  will  admit  that  his  judgment 
is  not  sound."  So,  doubtless,  many  bookkeepers  who 
have  not  been  promoted  to  positions  of  responsibility 
feel  that  they  have  not  been  appreciated.  The  busi- 
ness world,  in  fact,  is  full  of  men  in  subordinate  posi- 
tions who  sincerely  believe  that  their  superiors  do  not 


OPPORTUNITY  309 

realize  what  fine  minds  they  have.  If  any  reader  of 
this  chapter  feels  that  way  about  himself,  I  wish  to 
assure  him  that  the  chances  are  ten  to  one  that  he  is 
mistaken.  His  associates  have  probably  formed  a 
more  correct  estimate  of  his  mental  power  than  he 
has  himself.  He  should  not  cease  to  be  ambitious  to 
make  the  most  of  himself,  nor  should  he  stop  trying  to 
climb  up,  but  he  must  not  be  discontented  or  discour- 
aged because  he  cannot  keep  pace  with  men  of  keener 
intellect.  His  opportunities  lie  not  far  above  him, 
but  just  barely  beyond  his  reach. 

7.  Opportunity  always  near  at  hand. — I  have  just 
received  a  letter  from  a  young  engineer  in  a  western 
state  who  wants  to  come  to  New  York.  He  thinks 
there  must  be  an  opportunity  in  that  great  city  for  a 
man  of  his  education  and  experience.  I  have  written 
him  that  he  had  better  stay  in  the  West  and  seek  a 
connection  where  he  has  friends  and  is  known.  For 
him  there  is  greater  opportunity  in  a  single  western 
town  or  city  than  in  all  the  East. 

It  is  a  familiar  human  weakness  to  think  of  our- 
selves as  not  being  in  just  the  right  place.  Many  a 
country  boy  feels  certain  that  he  could  do  great  things 
if  he  could  only  get  into  a  city.  Doubtless  many  ob- 
scure country  physicians  feel  that  their  genius  for 
medicine  has  never  had  a  chance  for  development  be- 
cause of  the  narrow  scope  of  their  practice.  We  are 
prone  to  think  that  opportunity,  like  happiness,  lies 
in  some  distant  place,  and  that  if  we  only  could  get 
there  we  should  be  successful  and  content. 


310  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  secret  of  opportunity,  like 
that  of  happiness,  lies  in  ourselves.  No  youth  who 
wishes  to  become  a  business  man  need  travel  far  to 
make  a  start.  For  him  the  very  best  opportunities 
are  at  his  elbow.  Many  of  our  biggest  business  men 
got  their  first  training  in  their  home  towns  or  vil- 
lages— by  clerking  in  a  country  store,  by  selling  news- 
papers, by  taking  subscriptions  to  magazines,  by  act- 
ing as  agents  for  manufacturers  of  farm  implements, 
etc.  After  a  youth  has  discovered  opportunity  near 
at  home  and  has  profited  by  it,  then  he  will  be  fit  for 
larger  opportunities  in  other  places,  but  as  a  rule  a 
man's  next  opportunity  lies  not  far  from  him.  This 
is  naturally  and  logically  the  case,  for  we  are  familiar 
with  near-at-hand  conditions  and  know  their  possi- 
bilities. The  glittering  opportunities  beckoning  to 
us  in  the  distance  are  unreal.  They  are  sisters  of  the 
sirens  who  sought  to  charm  Ulysses  from  his  true 
course.  As  Thomas  Carlyle  has  said:  "Our  grand 
business  is  not  to  see  what  lies  dimly  at  a  distance, 
but  to  do  what  lies  clearly  at  hand." 

It  does  not  follow  that  a  youth  should  never  come 
from  the  country  to  the  city,  or  that  a  business  man 
should  never  change  his  location.  The  fact  that  op- 
portunity always  lies  near  at  hand  does  not  mean  that 
a  man  will  not  change  from  place  to  place,  or  from 
business  to  business.  A  change  of  location  is  often 
exceedingly  desirable  and  advisable,  but  a  man  should 
make  the  change,  not  because  he  is  looking  for  op- 


OPPORTUNITY  311 

portunity,  but  because  opportunity  has  made  the 
change  practicable  and  profitable. 

8.  The  will  for  doing. — The  old  proverb,  "Where 
there's  a  will  there's  a  way,"  receives  abundant  veri- 
fication in  the  business  world.  Any  man  can  get 
M^hat  he  really  wants  in  business,  whether  riches,  po- 
sition or  honor.  That  statement,  doubtless,  looks 
very  extravagant  to  many  readers.  It  may  be  read 
by  a  man  of  fifty  who  has  been  in  business  thirty- 
five  years,  and  is  now  barely  able  to  support  him- 
self and  family.  "Surely,"  he  may  say,  "I  wanted 
a  fortune  and  I  set  out  to  make  it.  I  have  worked 
hard  for  thirty-five  years,  but  here  I  am  just  able  to 
hold  down  an  ordinary  position.  The  writer  of  this 
book  does  not  know  what  he  is  talking  about." 

The  man  who  talks  that  way  does  not  know  what 
I  mean  by  "really  wants."  In  the  thirty-five  years 
of  his  business  life  has  he  ever  voluntarily  gone  with- 
out food  or  sleep  in  order  to  further  the  interests  of 
his  employer  or  of  himself?  Has  he  turned  his  back 
on  all  pleasures  which  killed  time  that  might  have 
been  profitably  devoted  to  the  study  of  his  business, 
or  to  the  seeking  of  opportunities  to  increase  his 
business  or  his  own  usefulness  in  business?  Has  he 
spent  ^u's  money  foolishly,  or  has  he  saved  every 
penny  possible  in  order  that  he  might  increase  his 
capita],  being  content  with  the  simplest  and  plainest 
manner  of  living?  Has  he  deliberately  sought  the 
friendship  of  men  who  could  be  helpful  to  him  in 


312  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

his  business?  In  short,  has  he  given  his  whole  energy, 
hotly  and  soul,  night  and  day,  to  business? 

He  may  think  he  really  wanted  a  fortune,  but  if 
he  did  not  do  all  these  things  and  many  more,  he  is 
mistaken.  Like  many  thousands  of  people  he  merely 
wanted  to  be  rich,  but  was  not  willing  to  pay  the 
price. 

To  most  men,  by  the  way,  great  riches  are  not 
worth  the  price.  Too  many  fine  things  have  to  be 
sacrificed.  If  a  man  has  not  the  ability  to  make  a 
great  success  in  business  unless  he  neglects  his  duties 
as  a  father,  husband,  citizen  and  neighbor,  foregoing 
what  President  Eliot  calls  "the  enduring  satisfactions 
of  life,"  he  will,  as  a  man,  be  happier  and  more  "suc- 
cessful" if  he  is  content  with  moderate  success  in 
business. 

But  a  man  must  not  expect  to  find  opportunity  of 
any  kind  if  he  has  not  the  will  for  doing  and  for 
sacrifice.  Back  of  his  will  must  be  an  intense  de- 
sire, not  just  a  milk-and-water  wish  or  longing.  The 
desire  must  be  so  consuming  that  it  impels  him  to 
act  and  to  do  anything  and  everything  that  can  possi- 
bly help  him  to  conquer. 

The  man  who  waits  for  an  opportunity  or  a  job 
to  turn  up,  who  leans  heavily  on  his  friends,  ixpect- 
ing  them  to  find  an  opportunity,  who  does  not  use 
every  moment  of  his  time  and  every  ounce  of  his 
energy  and  ability  seeking  what  he  wants,  lacks  the 
will  for  doing.  Even  if  his  friends  get  him  a  position 
or  point  out  to  him  an  opportunity  for  which  he  is 


OPPORTUNITY  313 

fitted,  he  does  not  throw  himself  heartily  into  his  work. 
The  waiting  or  Micawber  quality  gives  great  comfort 
to  a  lazy  soul,  but  opportunity  never  shows  it  her  face. 

A  young  man  in  quest  of  his  first  job,  or  of  a 
better  one  than  he  now  holds,  must  realize  that  he 
himself  must  go  after  it  and  go  after  it  hard.  Per- 
haps he  was  once  a  substitute  on  his  high-school  base- 
ball nine.  He  was  ambitious  to  be  pitcher.  Did  he 
get  that  responsible  position  by  wishing  or  wire-pull- 
ing among  his  friends,  or  did  he  get  it  by  making 
himself  fit  thru  long  and  hard  practice?  As  was 
said  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  volume,  business  is  a 
game  and  men  must  not  expect  to  fill  positions  for 
which  they  have  not  proved  their  fitness. 

9.  Business  experience. — A  man  who  knows  noth- 
ing of  the  lumber  business  cannot  be  expected  to 
discover  opportunities  for  making  money  in  lumber. 
In  the  United  States  there  have  been  many  such  op- 
portunities during  recent  years,  but  they  were  con- 
cealed from  men  who  had  not  had  experience  in 
buying  and  selling  lumber.  This  statement  would 
be  true  in  regard  to  any  kind  of  business. 

Strongly  as  I  believe  in  the  yalue  of  the  lessons 
which  you  can  learn  from  the  experience  of  others, 
or  from  books  and  schools,  nevertheless  it  must  never 
be  forgotten  that  there  are  certain  most  important 
lessons  which  a  man  can  learn  only  by  doing.  A 
young  lawyer  can  learn  how  he  may  best  influence  a 
jury  only  by  experience  with  a  jury.  He  may  have 
been  taught  the  methods  of  appeal  generally  held 


314  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

to  be  the  best,  but  which  ones  are  best  fitted  to  his 
own  powers  he  must  discover  for  himself  thru  prac- 
tice. So  a  young  man  preparing  for  business  can 
learn  much  from  books  about  the  laws  governing  busi- 
ness phenomena  and  about  the  methods  and  policies 
which  have  proved  most  successful  in  the  past,  but 
he  cannot  be  a  master  in  any  field  until  he  has  had 
actual  experience  with  business  problems  and  diffi- 
culties. 

The  more  a  man  has  learned  about  business  thru 
study  and  thru  experience,  the  keener  his  insight  is 
into  opportunity,  and  the  more  likely  he  is  to  avail 
himself  of  an  opportunity  successfully. 

10.  Luck. — Opportunity  and  luck  are  not  rela- 
tives, or  even  good  friends.  The  reader  doubtless  al- 
ready knows  that,  but  I  must  emphasize  the  fact  be- 
cause of  the  popular  gospel  which  converts  luck  into 
the  goddess  of  Fortune.  In  our  current  magazines, 
there  is  a  vast  amount  of  loose  talk  about  the  part 
that  luck  plays  in  business  success. 

The  essential  element  of  luck  is  chance,  and  it  is 
a  mathematical  certainty  that  chance  is  no  respector 
of  persons.  Chance  is  absolutely  impartial.  To  say 
that  a  man  has  succeeded  in  business  because  of  his 
luck,  or  because  he  was  born  under  a  lucky  star,  is 
as  absurd  as  to  say  that  some  right  angles  are  bigger 
than  others.  Chance  helps  the  wicked  and  the  good, 
the  efficient  and  the  inefficient,  the  lazy  and  the  ener- 
getic, and  it  distributes  its  favors  with  the  coldest 
kind  of  impartiality.     Chance  might  be  called  a  math- 


OPPORTUNITY  315 

ematical  goddess  who  smiles  and  frowns  alternately. 
If  you  catch  her  smile  you  are  lucky,  but  if  her 
frown,  unlucky.  If  you  become  her  worshipper,  you 
will  get  an  equal  share  of  each,  your  bad  luck  off- 
setting your  good. 

Undoubtedly  men  often  make  money  in  business 
as  a  result  of  luck.  The  outbreak  of  the  European 
War  in  1914  was  "lucky"  for  the  makers  of  ammuni- 
tion and  other  war  supplies.  A  failure  of  the  wheat 
crop  is  lucky  for  the  miller  who  happens  to  have  on 
hand  a  large  stock.  A  rise  in  the  price  of  copper 
is  lucky  for  the  owners  of  copper  mines.  As  was 
pointed  out  in  Chapter  II,  a  man  who  seeks  to  make 
money  in  business  must  battle  with  the  elements  of 
chance,  with  the  uncertainties  of  the  seasons,  with 
the  changes  of  fads  and  fashions,  and  with  the  un- 
accountable and  unforeseeable  shifting  of  demand, 
but  in  the  long  run  chance  helps  one  business  man 
quite  as  much  as  it  does  another. 

When  you  analyze  carefully  the  career  of  a  man 
who  seems  to  have  been  born  lucky,  you  will  find 
that  he  earned  his  luck,  that  in  all  his  undertakings 
he  took  every  precaution  to  guard  against  evil 
chances.  On  the  other  hand,  the  man  of  notoriously 
bad  luck  will  be  found  to  have  been  weak  in  some 
of  the  qualities  essential  to  success. 

All  Americans  know  something  about  the  part 
that  luck  plays  in  baseball,  and  they  ought  to  know 
that  the  most  "breaks"  usually  fall  into  the  lap  of 
the  team  that  is  most  fit. 

I — 22 


S16  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

11.  Opportunity  and  age. — It  is  evident  that  the 
opportunities  for  which  a  man  of  forty  is  or  should 
be  fitted  are  entirely  different  from  those  open  to 
the  young  man.  But  has  the  man  of  middle  age 
already  exhausted  opportunity?  Must  he  not  be  con- 
tent with  his  present  rank  in  business?  If  he  has 
been  in  business  for  himself,  has  he  a  right  to  hope 
that  he  can  accomplish  more  during  the  next  ten  or 
fifteen  years  than  he  has  accomplished  in  the  past? 
Should  a  man  between  forty  and  fifty  years  of  age 
enter  into  new  business  or  new  connections? 

Questions  like  these  have  come  home  personally  to 
many  men  and  have  proved  very  difficult  to  answer. 

Everything  depends  upon  the  man.  Some  men 
are  old  at  forty-five;  they  have  ceased  to  learn  or  to 
take  interest  in  new  things  and  are  ambitious  merely 
to  maintain  their  present  status,  or  to  retain  a  posi- 
tion or  a  business  which  gives  them  a  comfortable 
living.  Such  men  should  beware  of  severing  old  con- 
nections or  of  undertaking  new  enterprises.  Other 
men  are  still  young  at  forty-five  and  fifty ;  their  minds 
are  on  the  future,  not  the  past;  they  take  no  pride 
in  what  they  have  accomplished,  but  are  impatient  for 
more  work  and  bigger  tasks;  they  still  have  vision 
and  ambition.  To  men  of  this  sort,  if  they  have 
guarded  their  health,  opportunity  offers  its  biggest 
prizes. 

A  man  of  sixty-five,  who  had  begun  life  as  a 
farmer's  boy  and  had  built  up  a  business  of  interna- 
tional dimensions,  once  said  to  me.  "I  wish  I  were 


OPPORTUNITY  317 

twenty  again.  I  see  so  many  opportunities  in  busi- 
ness that  I  cannot  take  advantage  of,  things  that 
ought  to  be  done,  that  would  make  the  nation  richer. 
It  is  not  the  money  I  think  of — I  already  have  more 
of  that  than  I  need — but  I  do  not  like  to  see  oppor- 
tunities for  good  business  going  to  waste.  Now  what 
I  cannot  understand  is,  why  I  cannot  make  my  boys 
see  these  opportunities.  I  have  given  them  both  a 
good  education,  but  they  simply  do  not  understand 
me  when  I  try  to  show  them  how  they  can  do  as 
much  as  I  have  done  over  and  over  again." 

He  was  a  man  who  could  not  really  get  old.  If 
he  had  early  learned  to  take  proper  care  of  his  body, 
he  would  be  doing  new  things  in  business  at  eighty 
with  the  same  vigor,  vision  and  judgment  that  made 
him  succeed  at  forty. 

The  man  of  fifty  who  has  lost  his  job  and  does  not 
know  how  to  do  anything  particularly  well,  or  who 
has  failed  in  business,  certainly  has  a  sorry  outlook. 
He  cannot  complain  if  his  applications  for  work  are 
turned  down  because  of  his  age,  nor  because  his 
friends  listen  rather  indifferently  when  he  brings  to 
them  an  opportunity  for  investment  or  for  business. 
A  man  in  this  unhappy  condition  can  save  himself 
from  complete  wreck  only  if  he  keeps  going.  If 
he  despairs  and  relies  solely  on  his  friends  to  help  him, 
as  many  do,  there  is  no  hope  for  him.  But  if  he 
can  only  be  made  to  seek  opportunity  with  the  cour- 
age and  ardor  of  youth,  the  chances  arc  that  he  will 
succeed  despite  the  prejudice  against  his  age.     As  a 


318  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 

rule,  men  who  are  stranded  at  fifty  have  not  mastered 
the  art  of  rendering  really  valuable  service  and  are 
suffering  the  penalty  of  ignorance  and  inaptitude. 
Needless  to  say,  the  young  man  can  protect  himself 
against  any  such  fate. 

12.  Preparedness. — In  conclusion,  let  us  sum  up 
the  things  essential  to  opportunity,  and  decide  how  a 
man  may  best  fit  himself  for  it.  Externally,  as  we 
have  seen,  an  opportunity  in  business  consists  of  cer- 
tain conditions  which  if  handled  by  the  right  man 
may  be  made  to  yield  a  profit.  Those  conditions  con- 
stitute an  opportunity  only  to  the  right  man.  An 
opportunity  exists  only  for  those  who  have  the 
mental  qualities,  the  will  and  the  knowledge  neces- 
sary for  its  perception  and  use  or  exploitation. 
For  men  of  small  powers  only  small  opportunities 
exist. 

Can  a  man  prepare  himself  for  opportunity?  Can 
a  man  of  average  intellectual  ability  hope  ever  to  fit 
himself  for  large  opportunities?  Both  these  ques- 
tions can  be  answered  positively  in  the  affirmative. 
There  is  practically  no  limit  to  what  a  man  can  ac- 
complish in  business  if  he  only  will. 

Here  are  the  things  he  must  do :  work,  study,  read, 
think,  observe — and  then  do  more  work. 

In  this  chapter  I  have  laid  so  much  stress  on  the 
importance  of  mental  power  or  ability  that  some  of 
my  more  diffident  readers  may  have  been  a  little  dis- 
couraged. Let  me  say  right  now  that  no  man,  young 
or  old,  who  can  read  the  Texts  of  the  Modern  Busi- 


OPPORTUNITY  319 

ness  Course  and  Service  understandingly,  need  worry 
about  his  mental  quality.  He  has  brains  enough  and 
can  accomplish  anything  he  wishes  in  business,  if  he 
will  work  and  equip  himself  for  opportunity. 

For  such  a  man  the  Modern  Business  Course  and 
Service  is  itself  an  opportunity.  So  is  a  university 
school  of  commerce,  if  he  can  get  to  one.  In  these 
days  every  man  has  an  abundance  of  opportunity  to 
develop  and  strengthen  his  mental  power,  store  his 
memory  with  information  about  business,  and  to  train 
his  judgment  to  an  understanding  of  business  oppor- 
tunities. Any  man  who  sets  himself  at  the  perform- 
ance of  these  tasks  diligently,  faithfully  and  perse- 
veringly,  will  find  himself  courageously  facing  larger 
and  larger  opportunities  as  the  years  add  to  his  ex- 
perience in  business. 

Brains  are  tremendously  important  in  business. 
Yet  an  ordinary  brain,  dominated  by  the  highest  type 
of  character — the  essential  principle  of  which  is  a 
will  resolute  to  know  the  truth,  to  do  the  right  thing, 
and  to  work  with  all  one's  might  for  a  worthy  pur- 
pose— may  win  first  prizes  in  business.  But  the  brain 
must  be  properly  trained  and  the  character  must  be 
such  as  inspires  complete  and  absolute  confidence 
among  men. 

Therefore,  let  the  man  who  wishes  to  prepare  for 
opportunity  put  his  brains  into  harness  and,  if  necesr 
sary,  rebuild  his  character.  This  any  man  can  do. 
Hence  opportunity  is  potentially  within  the  reach 
of  all. 


320  BUSINESS  AND  THE  MAN 


REVIEW 

How  does  opportunity  differ  from  luck? 

Give  reasons  which  controvert  the  popular  belief  that  oppor- 
tunity is  growing  less. 

Does  opportunity  come  to  men,  or  do  men  gain  access  to  oppor- 
tunity ? 

Where  should  men  seek  it,  and  what  men  are  likely  to  find  it? 

What  does  it  mean  to  seek  opportunity  rather  than  wait  for 
it  to  turn  up? 

Is  opportunity  closed  to  men  of  middle  age? 


INDEX 


A    Priori    Reasoning,    26,    89 

See  Deduction 
Ability    and    Opportunity,    308 
Accountancy, 

Professional    rank    of,    51;    Univer- 
sity   schools   of   commerce,    51 
Adaptability,    228 

Advancement,    depends  on   self,    205 
Advertising, 

Importance,       45—6;        Professional 
rank,    48-51:    Perils,    73-4;    Ethi- 
cal   code,    124 
Age,    and   Opportunity,    316 
Aladdin's  Lamp,   139 
Alcohol, 

Effects    of,    185-7;    A   poison,    186; 
Weakens    will,     186 
Alexander     Hamilton    Institute,     pur- 
pose.   2—4 ; 
See  Subscribers 
Ambition, 

Definition,     140    Importance,     140—1 
American     Bar     Association,     uniform 

legislation,     77 
Appeal,   102; 

To    instinct,    103-4;    Human    inter- 
est,     104;      To      reason,      104-5; 
Choice   of,    105-6;    Suitable,    106- 
7;    Action  and,   108-9 
Appearance,  personal,  246 
Archimedes,   109-110 
Armour,  P.  D.,  42,  155,  220 
Attention, 

Holding  the,    109;   Interest  must  be 

aroused.    109-10; 
See  Psychology 
Automobile       Dealers,        Second-hand, 
Ethical  codes  of,   121 


Bacon,   Lord,   169-70 
"Balance  of  Trade,"   87 
Banking,    as   a    profession,    51—2 
Baseball,    70,    315 
Beethoven,    132-3 
Belief,   154-5,   194 
Bell,   Alexander   Graham,   197 
Bennett,    Arnold,     "The     Human    Ma- 
chine,"   271-2 
Bennett,   Sanford,   179  note 


321 


Big     Business,     Ethics     and,      117-8, 
128-9 

Body,  a  Strong, 

Definition,  173;  Eating  habits  and, 
174;    Energy,    296-7 

Brains, 

Profit  problem,  79;  Personality, 
267;  Opportunity  and,  319-20 

Bunyan,  John,    "Pilgrim's  Progress," 
26-7 

Business, 

Science  of,  1,  32-3;  Scientific  train- 
ing for,  1-36;  Phenomena,  2,  13, 
26;  Compared  to  human  body, 
3-4;  European  war  and,  3-4; 
Problems  and  the  subscriber,  5; 
Culture,  32-3;  Life  and,  35-6; 
Definition.  37-9;  Profits  and, 
37-9;  Essential  elements,  39-41; 
Profit  and  risk,  39-41;  Money 
and  price,  40-1  ;  Fascinating 
game,  58—9;  Capital  necessary, 
62-5;  Organization  building  in, 
69-70;  Like  baseball,  70 :  Labor 
and,  70-2;  Moral  imperative  in, 
112—14;  A  cooperative  matter, 
113;  Code  of  ethics,  116;  Value 
of  imagination,  146-8;  Strain  on 
health.  171-2;  Energy.  172;  Pit- 
ting oneself  for,  172-3;  A  com- 
plicated machine,  198-9;  Getting 
a  start  in,  252-4:  Value  of  per- 
sonality, 266-7;  Will  power.  290- 
1 ;  In  the  United  States,  304 

Business,  Ethics  and. 
See  Ethics  and  Business 

"Business  is  Business,"   194 

Business  Man,  the, 

Untrained,       3-4;       Culture,      31-2; 
Value    of    study,     31  ;     Who    is    a. 
37-8;    Money    and.    41:    Study    of 
human    wants   by,    -11-2;    ln.iginn- 
tion.   136,    145-8;  Successful.    189; 
Great,    199 
See     Efficient     Business     Man,     Soci- 
ology.  Wants    (Human) 
Business,   Nature   and  Aim   of,    :i7    61; 
Advertising,    44-1 T> ;    Market   changes, 

44-5;       Overproduction       bogey, 

44-5;    Salesmanship,    45-6;    Com- 


322 


INDEX 


Business  Nature  and  Aim — continued 
modities,  46;  Production  and 
sale,  46;  Services  bought  and 
sold,  46—7 ;  Three  great  classes, 
46-7;  Professions  and,  47-50; 
Distinguished  from  professions, 
48-9;  Ethical  codes,  48-9;  As  a 
profession,  50—1;  Elements  of 
success,  53-4;  Profit  not  only 
aim,  53-4;  Dignity,  54-5;  Im 
portance,  54—5;  ''Commercial' 
not  term  of  reproach.  55-6 
Greeks  and  Romans,  55;  Old 
views  of,  55—6;  Service,  55—6 
Civilization,  56-7;  Competitive 
forces,  56;  Criticism,  56;  So 
ciety's  debt  to,  56;  As  a  job 
57-8;  As  a  gold  mine,  58;  Pleas 
ures  of  "Work,"  58-9;  Fas 
cinating  game,  59—60;  Psychol 
ogy,   59 

Business   Organization,    a    unit,    225-6 

Business,   Science  of, 
See    Economics 

Business  Statesmen,  206 


Capital, 

Necessity,  62-3;  Definition,  63; 
Got  by  saving,  63-4;  Not  mere- 
ly money,  63;  Hill,  J.  J„,  65; 
Experience  versus,    70 

Career, 

Dominant  trait  for,  161-3 ;  Choos- 
ing a,  239 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  310 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  155 

Cause,    Definition,    13-4 

Caveat  Emptor,   116-7 

Cerebellum,    101 

Cerebrum,   101 

Chance,  314 

Character, 

Education  and,  33-4;  Correcting 
weak  spots,  168-9;  Lord  Bacon, 
169-70 

Character,    Analysis,    278-301 

Judging,  278-9;  Undefinable.  278; 
Marks  of,  279-83;  Emotions, 
280;  Thought  and,  280;  Phrenol- 
ogy, 281-3;  By  experience,  283- 
4;  Evolution.  285-7:  Dark-skin- 
ned races,  285-7:  Hand  as  an 
indicator,  285:  White  races.  286; 
Physical  characteristics,  285-6; 
Mental  power,  287-9:  Intense 
versus  indolent  mind.  288-9;  Low 
forehead,  288;  Mental  tests,  289- 
90;   Allowance  for  training,    290; 


Character,  Analysis — continued 

Will  power,  290—2;  Over-sensi- 
tiveness, 293;  Stability,  293-4; 
Energy,  295-6;  Dishonesty  or 
trickery,  297-8;  Lying,  297-8; 
Tact,    298-301 

Character,  Instability  of, 

Causes,  293-5 ;  Auto-toxication, 
294;   Dissipation,   294-5 

Character,  Stability  of,   293-4 

Cheerfulness,  Importance  of,  242-3 

Chin,  Weak,   270 

Choate,   Joseph,    188 

Church,  94-6 

Civilization, 

Aided  by  business,  56-7;  Dynamic, 
61 

Climate,  Effect  of  Changes  in,  77-8 

Codes,   of  Ethics, 
See   Ethics 

Colonel  Sellers,   133 

Commerce,       New      York      University 
School  of,  268 

Commerce,    University    Schools   of, 
Purpose,    1-2;   Accountancy  and,    51 

"Commercial,"      not     Term     of     Re- 
proach,  55-6 

Commodities, 

Production  and  sale  of,  46;  Distri- 
bution,  56 

Common  Sense, 

Controls  imagination,  138;  Efficiency 
and,  193;  Judgment  of,  278  et 
seq. 

Compensation,  219,  256-9 

Competition, 

Nature,  65-6;  Meaning,  66:  Sur- 
vival of  fittest,  66;  Brings  out 
strongest  men,  67:  "Life  of 
trade,"  67-9;  Unfair,  67-9;  So- 
cialists  on,    68-9,    80 

Competitive  Forces,  in  business.  56 

Conceit,   not   self-confidence,   275 

Concentration,    110.    197-9: 
See   Reading   with    the    Mind 

Consumption  of  Wealth,   91-3 

Control  of  Men,  Methods  of,   216-7 

Cooperation  in  Business,  113 

Courage,    211-3 

Copernicus,    135 

Corporations, 

Responsibility  for,  210;  Create  op- 
portunity,   304 

Courtesy,   244-5 : 

Definition,  275-6;   Importance,   276 

Credit,  and  the  Profit  Problem,  75 

"Credit  and  the  Credit  Man,"   75 

Credit    Men,    National    Association    of, 
123 


INDEX 


323 


Culture,    definition,    31-3 

Curiosity,  and  the  human  mind,  25 

Custom, 

Definition,  82-3;  Inflexibility,  96-8; 
Credit,  97;  Imitation,  97-8;  Law 
in  business,  87;  Instinctive, 
103-4;   Derivation,   111 


Dark-Skinned  Races,   origin   of,   285-6 
Darwin, 

Theory    of    evolution,    24;    Imagina- 
tion,   134 
Debts,  bad,  74-5 

Decision,   essential   in  business,    190-1 
Deduction, 

Definition,   19;  Newton,  26;   English 
Classical    School,    89 
Demand  and  Supply,  and  prices,   72-3 
Details,    231-2 
Dignity  of  Business,  54—5 
Diogenes,   92 
Directors,   Board  of, 

Labor    question,    72;    Ethical    codes 
of,    127-8:   Responsibility,   210 
Discipline  of  Mind,    267 
Dissipation,   294-5 

Dominant  Trait,  and  the  career,   161-3 
Dreams,   meaning  of,    138; 

See    Imagination 
Dress  and  Tact,   299 
Drugs,   habit-forming,    185-7 
Dromios,   The   Two,    262 


Eating,    three    rules    for,    187-8 

Economics, 

Aim,  84-5;  Business  man's  science 
85 ;  Free  trade  and  protection 
85-6;  Mercantilists,  86;  Un 
known  to  Greeks  and  Romans 
86-7;  "Balance  of  trade."  87 
Physiocrats,  87-8;  English  Classi 
cal  School,  88-9;  Smith,  Adam 
88-9;  A  priori  reasoning,  89: 
"Laissez  faire. "  89;  Mill.  John 
Stuart,  89;  Human  wants,  90-1 
Production,  91;  Diogenes,  92 
Social  institutions,  94-6 
See   Sociology 

"Economics  of  Business,"   56 

Education, 

Culture,  32-3;  Character,  33-4; 
Milton,  John,  33;  Purpose,  33-4; 
Knowledge  and  understanding, 
34;  Need  for  business,  51-2; 
Church,  94-6;  Aim,  158:  Ad- 
vancement, 255;  Self-confidence 
thru,    274-5 


Efficiency  Experts,  160-1 

Efficiency,    national,    94 

Efiiciency,  personal, 

Definition,  150;  Economy  of  energy, 
time  and  space,  150-1;  Essence, 
150-1;  Engineers,  151;  Nature,  a 
prodigal,  151;  "Know  thyself," 
152-3;  Man  as  a  machine,  153; 
Be  thyself,  154-5;  Belief  in  self, 
154-5;  Humility,  154-5;  Study, 
155;  Demands,  156;  Not  imita- 
tion, 156;  Temperament,  156-^8; 
Mind,  158-9;  No  school  of,  158; 
Purpose,  159-60;  In  oneself, 
160-1;  Dominant  trait,  161-3; 
Not  weak  will,  161;  What  career, 
161-3;  Head  and  Heels,  163; 
Thinking  and  planning,  163-4; 
Habit,  164—5;  Environment, 
166-7;  Poise,  167-8;  Enemies, 
168-9;  Weak  spots  in  charac- 
ter, 168-9;  Lord  Bacon,  169-70; 
Procrastination,  169;  Increased 
by  play,   182 

Efficient  Business  Man,  the, 

Essential    qualities,    189-202;    Deci- 
sion,     190-1;      Indecision,      190 
Thinking,       190-1;       Weak      will 
190;    General    knowledge,    192-3 
Common     sense,     193-4;     Experi 
ence,     193;     belief,     194;     "Busi 
ness    is    business,"    194;    Reason 
ing     process,     194;     Hill,     J.     J. 
197;    Field,    Marshall,    197;    Stan 
dard        Oil,        197;        Stephenson 
George,   197;   United   States  Steel 
Corporation,       197;       Wanamnker 
Stores,      197;      Wright      Brothers, 
197 

Efotist,    the,   265 

Ehot,   Charles  \\\,   312 

Emerson,    Ralph   Waldo,    17,    43,    118, 
160 

Emotions,     effect     on     character,     280, 
293 

Employer  and  Employe,   11.1-14 

Energy,    213-15; 

Ambition  and,  140-1;  Economy 
of,  150-1;  Nature  a  prodigal, 
151-2;  Driving  power,  1  '.-' , 
Derivation,  295-6;  Sound  body 
essential,  296-7;  "On  bis 
nerve,"  297 

Engineers,  Efficiency,  151 

English  Classical  School,   88-9 

Enthusiasm,    vain.',    ill    2,    199-200 

Entrepreneur,    'J"7 
8r«   Executive 

Environment,  adjustment   to,  229 


324 


INDEX 


Ethics  of  Business,  111-29; 

Custom.  Ill;  Mouuiug,  111;  Phi 
losophy  uud,  111—12;  Science  of, 
111-12;  Smith,  Adam,  111 
Utilitarian  School,  111-12 

"Golden  rule,"  112 :  Moral  im 
perative,  112-14;  Practical,  112 
Laws  of  political  economy,  113- 
14;  Responsibility,  113;  Codes 
vary,  115-17;  Law  and,  115  et 
seq. ;  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act, 
115;  Caveat  emptor.  116-17; 
Big  business,  117-18;  Hart- 
Schaffner  and  Marx,  117;  West- 
inghouse,  117;  Emerson,  R.  \Y., 
118;  "Pure  food"  law,  118; 
Standards  of  good,  118-19; 
Railroad  rebates,  119;  Usury 
laws,  119-20.  126-7;  Produce 
commission  men,  120—1;  New 
York  Stock  Exchange,  120 
Trades  without  standards,  120 
Merchandising,  121—2 ;  Second 
hand  automobile  dealers,  121 
Field,  Marshall,  122 ;  Misrepre 
sentation,  122;  Stewart.  A.  T, 
122;  Wanamaker,  John,  122 
Woolworth.  122 :  Trade  associa 
tions,  122-3 ;  National  Associa 
tion  of  Credit  Men,  123;  Pur 
chasing  agents,  123 ;  Advertising 
124;  Wall  Street,  124-6;  Board 
of  directors,  127-8;  Van  Ant- 
werp, W.  C,  127;  Big  business, 
128-9;  United  States  Steel  cor- 
poration,  197 

Evolution, 
'  Physical        characteristics,        285-6 ; 
Bad  habits,   287 

Executive,  The,   203-222; 

Definition.  201;  Montesquieu,  203; 
Plato,  203  ;  Three  classes,  203-5 ; 
Business  statesman,  205—6;  Not 
mere  "politician,"  205—6;  An  origi- 
nator, 206;  Entrepreneur,  207; 
Delegated  responsibility,  207—8; 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company, 
208;  Qualities,  209;  Responsibil- 
ity, 209-11,  219;  Initiative,  211- 
12;  Courage,  212-13;  Finding 
fault,  213:  Control  of  men,  214, 
216-17;  Gowin,  Professor  E.  B., 
214;  Moral  cowardice,  214;  Not 
physical  weakling,  214;  Stature 
and  weight,  214;  Selection  of  sub- 
ordinates, 215;  leaders,  217-19; 
Compensation,   219;    Grant,   U.   S., 


Executive — continued 

219;    Napoleon,    219;    Armour,    P. 
D.,  220;  High  salaries,  220 
Executive  Ability, 

Definition,     200-1;     Qualities,     201; 
See  Executive 
Exercise, 

Purpose,     178-9;     Regularity,     179; 
"Setting-up,"  179 
Experience, 

Building  an  organization,  69-70 ; 
Baseball,  70;  Capital  and,  70; 
Teaches  self-knowledge,  162 ;  Ef- 
ficiency from,  193 ;  Rank  and  file 
workers,  238 ;  Judging  men  thru, 
283-4 
See  Officers,  Junior  or  Subordinate 
Expert  Knowledge,  191-2 


Factory  and  Business,  198 

Fashions      and      Fads,      Changes      in, 

78-9 
Federal  Anti-Trust  Act,  76 
Federal  Reserve  Banking  Law,   97 
Feet,  care  of  the,   175-6 
Field,    Marshall,    54,    197; 

Capital,  62  ;  "Square  deal,"  122 
First  Impressions, 

See  Personality 
Fixed  Idea,  harm  of  the,  144-5 
Food,  for  health,  187-8 
Ford,   Henry,   146 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  155,  301 
Free  Trade,  85-6 


Game,      business      as      a      fascinating, 

58-9 
Genius, 

Business,     143-4;     Superman,     144; 
Schopenhauer,    144 
"Get  rich  quick,"  197 
Gold,  value  of.   and  prices,  73 
Gold  Mine  in  Every  Business,  A,  58 
"Golden  Rule,"   112 
Golf,   182 
Good  Manners, 

See  Manners,  Good 
Gould,  Jay,  264 
Gowin,  Professor  E.  B.,  214 
Grant,   Ulysses   S.,   219 
Gravitation,   theory  of,   256 
Greeks  and  Romans, 

Business  among  the,   55;   No  science 
of  Economics,   86—7 
Greeley,  Horace,   1 1 0 
"Gulliver's  Travels,"  139 


INDEX 


325 


Habits, 

Good  and  bad,  101-2 ;  Personal  effi- 
ciency, 164-5;  Bad,  165-6,  287; 
Will  power,  165—6 

Harriman,  E.  H.,  264 

Hart,  Schaffner  and  Marx,  117 

Head  and  Heels,  163 

Health, 

Business     strain.     171-2;     Necessity 
for      good,      172 ;      Strong      body 
172-3;   Successful  men,    172:    Eat 
ing    too    much,    174;    Care    of    the 
feet,    175—6;    Sound    nerves,    175 
Body    and    mind,    176-7;    Must    be 
earned,    177-8 ;    Exercise,    178-80 
Ruskin,      178;      Spalding     Athletic 
Library.    179    note;     Working    for 
it,      179-80;      Writers      on,      179 
Play,      181-2;      Mental      attitude 
182—3 ;      Medicines      not      needed 
184—5 ;     Pain     a     danger     signal 
184—5 ;         Alcohol        and        drugs 
185-7;    Rules    for    eating,    187-8 
Choate,      188 ;      Water      drinking, 
188 

Heep,  Uriah,   154,  265 

Hill,  J.  J.,   65.   143,   155-6,   197 

Human    Equation,    psychology   and   the, 
99 

Human  Interest,  appeal  to,  104 

"The  Human  Machine,"   271-2 

Human  Wants, 

See  Wants,  Human 

Humility, 

Right  kind,  154-5;  Heep,  Uriah, 
154 

Hypothesis, 

Definition,  23-4;  Theory  and,  24; 
Darwin,  24;  Newton,  24-5;  Steps 
in  thinking,  26;  Imagination  con- 
structs, 134 


Idea,  the, 

See  Vision  or  the  Idea 

Ideal,  the. 

Definition,  136;  Imagination.  136-7; 
Importance,    137;    Habit,    164 

Ideas,  230 

Idee  fixe  or  fixed  idea,   144-5 

Imagination,    the, 

Definition.  130-1;  Constructive  or 
productive.  131  et  seq.;  Visual. 
131-2;  Aural,  133;  Beethoven, 
132-3;  James,  William,  132; 
Darwin  and  Wallace,  134-5 ;  Rea- 
son, 134-5;  Science  and,  134-6; 
Copernicus.  135;  Mathematics, 
135-6;    Ideal,    136-7;    Usefulness, 


Imagination — continued 

136;   Judgment,   137-9;  Controlled 
by     common-sense,     138;     Dreams 
138;    Mind   quality,    138-9;    Phan 
tasy,     138-9 ;     Ambition,     139-41 
Importance,    139 ;    Energy    needed 
by,     140-1;     Enthusiasm,"    141-2 
Poets,      philosophers,      etc.,       141 
Will      power,       142-3 ;       Business 
genius,    143-4;    Hill,    J.    J.,    143 
Morgan,    J.    P.,    143;    Rockefeller 
J.    D.,    143 ;    Fixed    idea    harmful 
144—5;    Schopenhauer,    144;    Busi 
ness     aid.     145-8 ;     Ford,     Henry 
146;       Judgment,       146-8;       Tele 
phone,     146 ;     Value     in     business 
146-8 ;     Inventions,      148 ;      Domi 
nant  trait,    161-2 
See  Vision 

Imitation,   and  Custom,  97-8 

Imitator,   154-5 

Indecision,    weakness   of  will,    190 

Indolence,   165,   179 

Induction, 

Definition,  19-20;  Laws  of  nature, 
20-1;  Deduction,  21-3;  "Sub- 
conscious"   judgment,    23 

Industrial  Progress,  See  Progress,  in- 
dustrial and  social;  Wants,  Hu- 
man 

Initiative,   211-12,   230 

"Innate  ideas,"   See  Intuition 

Instinct,  appeal  to.  103-4 

Institute,   Alexander  Hamilton, 
Aim,    35-6;    Advantages,    255 

Intuition, 

Explanation,  18-9;  "Innate  ideas," 
19;  Judgment  of  personality,  260— 
3 

Invention,   147-8 

James,  William,  132  note 

Job, 

Business  as  a,  57;  Man  with  a, 
57-8  ;  Gold  mine  in  every,  58-9 

Judgment, 

Imagination.  137-9,  146-7;  Busi- 
ness efficiency,  193-4;  Value, 
193-6 

Junior  Officers,  See  Officers,  junior  or 
subordinate 

Kant,  Immanuel,  s,  1 1 
"Know  Thyself,"   152-3 
Knowledge, 

Three   ways  of   acquiring.    17   ot  snq. ; 

Intuition.    1H,    20:     Deduction.    19; 

Laws  of  nature,  20-1 ;    Education, 


326 


INDEX 


Knowledge — continued 

34;    "Know    thyself."    152-3;    Ef- 
ficiency and,   193 ;   Self  confidence, 
273-4 
See  Intuition,  Memory,  etc.,  etc. 

Labor  Question, 

Troubles.  70-1;  Cost,  71;  Board  of 
directors,   72 

"Laissez   faire,"    89 

Law,   The, 

Unwise,   75-6 
Business    customs,    97;    Ethics,    115 
et     seq.;     Enforcement     of     stand- 
ards,     118-19;      Usury,      119-20; 

Leadership,      .Develops       responsibility, 
217.   219 

Leverrier,  25-6 

Life,   The  real.   35-6 

"Life  of  Trade,"  67-9 

"Liver"   Disturbances  and  Instability 
of  Character,  293-4 

Lord  Karnes,  on  Tact  and  dress,  299 

Low  Forehead,  288 

Loyalty,  226 

Luck,  and  Opportunity,  314 

Lying,  Detection  of.  297-8 

Lysippus,   306 

Malthus,    Thomas,    "Theory    of    Popu- 
lation," 24 

Man, 

A      machine,      153 ;      Three      classes, 

203-5 
See   Executive ;    Wants,    Human 

Manners,  Good,  245 

Market,  Changes  in  the,   44-5 

Marketing,    Advertising    and    salesman- 
ship  and,    45-6 

Mathematics,   Study  of, 

Imagination,  135-6;  Memory,  135- 
6 

Medical    Student,    The,    2 

Medicines,  1S4-5 

Medulla  Oblongata,  100-1 

Memory, 

Reading.  6-7,  10-11;  Aids  to.  8; 
Science  and.  16-7,  135;  Knowl- 
edge. 17-8;  Imagination.  133-4 

Mental   Attitude,   Importance   of   right, 
1*2-4 

Mental  Power, 

In  business,  287—9;  Practical  tests, 
2H9-90 

Merchandizing,  46,   121-2 

Mercantilists,    86-7 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  89 

Milton,  John,  33 


Mind,  The, 

Unit,    138;    Power,    139;    Efficiency, 

158-9;  Relation  to  body,  176-7, 
182-3;  Play,  182;  Importance 
of  right  attitude,  182-4;  Indo- 
lent.  2d8;    Inten.se,   2*8-9 

Misrepresentation,    Brings   failure,    122 

Money, 

Importance  in  business,  40-1;  Capi- 
tal. 63;  Mercantilists.  86-7;  Wise 
expenditure.   93;   Health.   171-3 

Montesquieu,  Classes  of  man,  203 

Moral  Cowardice,  212-3 

Moral  Imperative,    112-13;   See  Ethics 
and  business 

Morgan,  J.  P.,  143 

Motive,   102 


Napoleon,   108,   155.  219,  264 
Nature, 

Laws  of.  20;   Prodigality,   151-2 
Neptune,  25-6 
Nerves,    Sound.    175-6 
Nervous  System,  99-100 
New  York  Stock  Exchange, 

Usury    laws,    120;    Ethical    code    of, 
126-7 
Newton,    Sir  Isaac,   24-6,  29.   134 


"Office  and  Factory  Administration," 
71 

Officers, 

Subordinate  or  junior,  222-34; 
Duties  and  responsibilities,  223- 
4;  Training  and  experience.  224; 
Business  organization.  225-6; 
Teamwork,  225-6;  Loyalty.  226; 
Obedience.  227;  Adaptability, 
228;  Willing  to  learn,  229;  Ideas 
and  initiative,  230 ;  Capacity  for 
detail,  231;  Prospects,  233*;  On 
resigning  position,   234 

Opportunity, 

Growth  creates,  302 ;  Universally 
desired,  302;  in  United  States 
303 ;  Created  by  corporations 
304;  Variety  and,  305;  New 
wants,  305;  Goddess  of,  306 
Laws,  306;  Lysippus,  306;  A  rela 
tive  term,  306;  Ability,  308 
Near  at  hand.  309;  Carlyle 
Thomas,  310:  Secret  of,  310 
Will,  311;  Eliot.  Charles  W.,  312 
Experience,  313;  Chance.  314 
Luck,  314;  Baseball,  315;  Age. 
316;  Preparedness,  318-20 
Brains,   319-20 


INDEX 


327 


Organization,   Building  an. 

Experience,      69-70 ;     Labor,      70-2 ; 

Enthusiasm,   142 
See   Profit  Problem 
Organization,    Business.     See   Business 

organization 
Overproduction,      General,      impossible, 
44;     Profit     and,     44-5;     Human 
wants,  91 


Palmistry,  284-5 

Patent  Medicines,  Harmful,  185 

Patience  and  Grit,  196-7 

Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company,  208 

Personal      Appearance.     See      Appear- 
ance,   personal 

Personal      Efficiency.     See      Efficiency, 
personal 

Personality, 

One's  own,  107-8;  Napoleon,  108; 
Intuitive  judgments,  260-1;  First 
impressions,  261-2;  Man  him- 
self, 262-3;  Meaning,  262-3;  No 
two  alike,  262 ;  Two  Dromios, 
262;  Physical  bulk  not  most  im- 
portant, 263-4;  Strong,  263-4; 
Disagreeable,  264-5;  Stature, 
267;  Egotist,  265;  Heep,  Uriah, 
265;  Pompous  man,  265;  Ultra- 
suspicious,  265;  Wheedler,  265; 
Value  in  business,  266-7;  De- 
velopment, 267-8;  Discipline, 
267-8;  Intellectual  power,  267- 
9;  Cultivation  of  will,  269-71; 
Qualities  to  cultivate,  269;  Reso- 
lute will,  269-70;  Self  control. 
271-3;  Bennett,  Arnold,  271-3; 
Human  machine,  272-3;  Self-con- 
fidence, 273-4;  Conceit,  275; 
Courtesy,  275-6 

Phantasy, 

Aladdin's  lamp,  138;  "Gulliver's 
Travels,"   139 

Phenomena, 

Business,       2-3;       Combination       of 
forces,     13;     Tests,     23-4;     Socio- 
logical, 83  ;  Laws  of,   153 
See    Cause,    Subscriber,    Thinking 

Philosophy,       Ethics       and,       111-12; 
Classification  of  men,  203-5 

Phrenology, 

Pseudo  or  false  science,  281;  Hit  or 
miss  observations,  282;  Truth, 
•_•-  I  :  Will  location,  291-2 

Physiocrats,  h?   8 

Physiognomy,   281-4,   292 

Physiological  Changes,    Effect  of.     See 
Character,    Character   Analysis 


"Pilgrim's  Progress,"  26-7 

Plato,  203 

Play, 

Agent  of  health,  181-2;  Effect  on 
mind,  182;  Methods,  182;'  Value, 
182 

Poets,  Philosophers,  etc.,  and  the  imagi- 
nation, 141 

Poise, 

Definition,  167;  Lack  of,  167-8; 
Necessity  for,   167-8 

Political  Economy,  Laws  of,   113-14 

"Politician,"  the  mere,  205-6 

Pompous  Man,  265 

Poverty  and  Incompetence,  92-4 

"Practical"  Man,  The,  29-30 

Prejudice, 

Bunyan,  John,  26-7;  "Reason  of 
fools,"    27;    Voltaire,    27 

Preparedness.   Opportunity,   318-20 

"Price  Maintenance,"  76-7 

Prices, 

Importance  in  business,  40-1,  61-2  ; 
Demand  and  supply,  72-3 ;  Value 
of  gold.   73 

Procrastination,   Energy  and  efficiency, 
169 

Produce      Commission     Men,      Ethical 
standards  of,  120-1 

Production,    34.      See   Business,    nature 
and   aim   of 

Professional    Schools,    Training    in,    2 

Professions, 

Explanation,  47-50;  Rewards,  47; 
Success,  47-8;  Advertising,  48- 
50;  Distinguished  from  business, 
48;  Ethical  codes,  48-9;  Artists, 
49-50;  Publicity,  49-50;  Study 
of  business  problems,  49 ;  Busi- 
ness as  a,  50-1 

Profits, 

Aim  of  business,  37-9;  Essential 
elements  in  business,  39-40; 
overproduction,  44-5 ;  Not  only 
business   aim.    53—4 

Profit  Problem,   The,   61-81 

Cost  and  price.  61-2;  Human 
wants,  61-2;  Capital  a  necessity, 
62-3;  Saving  habit.  64-5;  Com- 
petition, 65-7;  Unfair  competi 
tion,  67-9;  Building  an  organize 
tion,  69-70;  Experience  neces 
sary,  69-70;  Labor  troubles.  7(1 
l;  Price  changes,  72-3;  Adver- 
tising perils.  78—4;  Mad  debts, 
71  ."■ ;  Credit,  75;  Laws  often  an 
wise,  75-0:  Federal  Anti-Trust 
Art,    76:    Price   maintenance,    Tfl 

7;    American    liar   Association,    77; 


328 


INDEX 


Profit  Problem,  The — continued 

Climatic  uncertainties,  77-8 ; 
Lawyer,  77;  Fashions  and  fads, 
78-9;  Brains,  79;  Will  power, 
79-80;    Socialists,   80 

Progress, 

Social  and  industrial,  92 ;  Product 
of   evolution,    148 

Protection,   85-6 

Psychology, 

Study  of,  50;  Laws  of  variety,  59; 
Aim,  99;  Essential  principles,  99- 
100;  Human  equation,  99;  Me- 
dulla oblongata,  100-1;  Nerve 
ganglia,  100 ;  Nervous  system, 
100;  Cerebrum  and  cerebellum, 
101;  Habits,  101-2;  "Human 
machine,"  the.  101-3;  Mental 
machine,  102-3 ;  Motive  appeal, 
response,  102;  Instinct,  103—4; 
Reason.  104—5 ;  Appeal,  106  et 
seq. ;  One's  own  personality,  107- 
8;  Traits  in  common,  107;  Ap- 
peal and  action,  108-9 ;  Napoleon, 
108;  Archimedes,  109-10;  Atten- 
tion, 109-10;  Self  interest,  109; 
Concentration         110;  Greeley, 

Horace,  110;  Relation  of  body 
and  mind,  176-7;  Must  earn 
pleasure,  177-8 

Publicity,    See    Advertising 

Punctuality,   247 

Purchasing    Agents,    National    Associa- 
tion of,   123-4 

"Pure  Food"   Law,   118 

Purpose, 

Necessity  for,  159-60;  Emerson, 
160;  Strength  of,  160-1;  Fitting 
for   business,    162-3 

Pussy-footing,  not  Tact,  301 

Rank-and-File  Workers,  235-59 

Responsibility,  237;  Importance  of 
the  work,  237;  Compared  to  tools 
and  machinery,  235-6;  Expe- 
rience, 238;  Career,  239;  Car- 
dinal virtues,  240;  Cheerfulness, 
242 ;  Courtesy,  244-5 ;  Good  man- 
ners, 245 ;  Personal  appearance, 
246;  Punctuality.  247;  Rut,  248- 
9 ;  Hidden  perils  before,  249 ; 
Things  to  avoid,  249-51:  On  get- 
ting a  start,  252-4;  Advantages 
of  Alexander  Hamilton  Institute; 
Education  and  advancement,  255 ; 
Wages,  256-9 

Reading  by  the  Page, 

Immanuel  Kant,  8,  11;  Learning 
how,   10 


Reading  with  the  Mind, 

Learning  Method,  6;  "Gist"  sen- 
tences, 7—8 ;  Preparatory  work, 
7 ;    Concentration,    10-11 

Reason, 

Appeal  to,  103-4;  Imagination,  134 

Reasoning  Process,  194 

Rebates,  Railroad,   119 

Reformer,   85-6 

Reliability,  293-4 

Rents,  High  in  New  York  City,  257 

Response,   102 

Responsibility, 

Ethics  of,  113;  Delegation  of,  by 
Executive,  207-8;  Executive, 
209-11;  Board  of  directors,  210; 
Taking,  211;  Develops  leadership, 
219;  Rank  and  file  workers,  237 
See  Officers,  junior  and  subordinate 

Rockefeller,  John  D.,  143 

Ruskin,  John,  178 

Sage,  Russell,   264 

Salaries,  High,  220 

Salesmanship,   45-6 

Saving,    Habit   difficult,    64;    See   Capi- 
tal 

Schopenhauer,  44,   144 

Science, 

Memory,  16-17,  135;  Thinking,  14; 
Definition,  15-16;  Emerson,  17; 
Tests,  23-4;  Laws,  26;  Economics, 
the  business  man's,  85;  Aim.  134; 
Imagination,  134-6;  Pseudo  or 
false,  281 

Self-confidence, 

Knowledge,   273-4;   Not  conceit,  275 

Self-control, 

Value,   271-2;   Development,   272-3 

Self-interest,  109 

Self-reliance,  196 

Service, 

Aim   of  the  Alexander   Hamilton   In- 
stitute,    35-6;      Explanation,     47; 
Rendered  in   business,    55-6 
Wages    depend    on,    257-8 ;    Sale    of, 
46 

"Setting-up"   Exercises,   179-80 

Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act,  115 

Smith,  Adam,  88-9,  111 

Social    Institutions,    94-6 

Socialism,  not  Sociology,  84 

Socialists,    On    competition,    68-9,    80, 
152 

Sociology, 

Aim,  82-3 ;  Custom,  82 ;  Definition, 
83  ;  Field,  83 ;  Importance.  83-4 ; 
Phenomena,  83;  Trade  union,  84; 
Consumption  of  wealth,  91-3  ;  Pov- 


INDEX 


329 


Sociology — continued 

erty      and      incompetence,      92—4 ; 
Business   men   should  know,   94-7; 
Church,    94-6 ;    National   efficiency, 
94-5;     Social     institutions,     94-6; 
Socially    unfit,    94;    Vanderlip,    F. 
A.,    95-6 ;    Inflexibility    of    custom, 
96-7 
See  Economics 
Sound  or  Sense  Images,   132-3 
Spalding  Athletic  Library,  179  n 
Standard  Oil  Company,   197 
Standards, 

Business,    enforced   by    law,    118—19; 
Merchandizing,  121-2 
Stature, 

Executives,     214;     Famous     men     of 
small,   264;    Personality,    264 
Stephenson,  George,   197 
Stewart,   A.   T.,   54,    122 
Study, 

Value,    30-1;    Object,    153;    Others' 
achievements    worthy,     155 
Sub-executives, 

See    Officers,    junior    or    subordinate 
Subordinates,   205;    Selection,   215 

See  Officers,   junior   or  subordinate 
Subscribers. 

Duty  of.  4-5 ;  Business  problems, 
5 ;  Curiosity,  5 ;  Memory,  6—8 ; 
How  to  read,  6  et  seq.;  On  being 
interested,  11-12;  Clear  think- 
ing, 12-13;  Business  phenomena, 
26;  Prejudice,  26-8;  Study,  30- 
1;  And  life,  35-6;  Sociology,  84; 
Self  advancement,  205 
See  Reading 
Success, 

In  business,   45 ;   In  professions,   47— 

8;    Elements,    53;    Qualities,    189; 

Essential    to    judge    character,    278 

"Suggestion,"  Tact  and,  300 

"Survival    of    the    Fittest,"    66.     See 

Competition 


Tact, 

Usefulness,   298;    Lord   Kames,    299; 

Dress,     299;     "Unanimous     man," 

299;  Not  pussy-footing.  301;  What 

it    is.    301 
Telephone,      Product     of     imagination, 

146 
Temperament, 

Definition,       156;       Kinds,       157-8; 

Character  analysis,  293-4 
Texts,   Modern  Business,  Aim,   37 
Theorist,  the  Mere,  28-30 


Theory, 

Definition,    24-6;    Darwin,    24;    Le- 
verrier,    25-6;    Malthus,    24;    New- 
ton, 24-6;  Prejudice  against,  28-9 
Thinking, 

Definition,  12;  Scientific,  14-15; 
Three  steps,  26;  Seeking  for 
causes,  14;  Imagination,  134-5; 
Aim  of  education,  158;  Head  and 
heels,  163  ;  Decision,  190-1 
Trade,  46 

Trade  Associations,   122-3 
Trade  Union,  84 

Trades  Without  Standards,   120-1 
Trading,   Criticism  of  business   and,   56 
Training,    Scientific,    51-2;    Allowances 

for   bad,    290 
Traits,  Common  to  all,  107 
Transcontinental  Railroads,  197 
Transportation,     A     future    profession, 
52-3 


Utilitarian  School,  111-12 
Ultra-suspicious  Man,  265 
Understanding, 

Education,    34-5 ;    Vanderlip,    F.    A., 

34-5 
United  Cigar  Stores,  231 
United  States, 

Business    in,    303—4;    Opportunities, 

304;    War,    World,   3-4 
United  States  Steel  Corporation,   197 
University  Schools  of  Commerce.     See 

Commerce,   university   schools  of 
UTanus,  25 
Usury  Laws,  119-20 


Van  Antwerp,  William  O.,  127 
Vandamme,    General,    108 
Vanderlip,  F.  A.,  34,  95-6 
Variety,  and  Opportunity,  305 
Vision,  or  the  Idea, 

Imagination,    130-1;    Kinds,    181-2; 
Colonel      Sellers,      138;      Twain, 
Mark.    133;    Memory,    133-4;    Vi- 
sionary.   138 
See    Imagination 
Visionary,  The,  188 

Visualization.     See      Imagination,      Vi- 
sion or  the  Idea 
Voltaire,   on  Prejudice,  27 


Wages, 

Ethics,    118;    Law    governing.    221; 
Value  of  sen  ices,  267—8 

Wallace,   i:t4-5 


330 


INDEX 


Wall  Street, 

Erroneous  idea  of,  124-5;  Ethics, 
124-5 

Wanamaker,  John,  '122 

Wanamaker   Stores,    197 

Wants, 

Human,  business  and,  41-2 ;  Ar- 
mour, P.  D.,  42;  Industrial  prog- 
ress, 42-3  ;  New,  42-3  ;  Emerson, 
R.  W.,  43  n;  Potential,  43;  Profit 
problem,  61;  three  characteris- 
tics of,  90-1 ;  Webster,  Daniel, 
92;   Opportunity,   305 

War,  World,  3-4 

Warman,  E.  B.,  179  n 

Water  Drinking,    188 

Wealth,  Consumption  of,  91-3 

"Wealth  of  Nations,"   88-9 

Webster,  Daniel,  92 


Westlnghouse  Company,   117 

Wheedler,  265 

White  Races,  286 

Will, 

Profit  problem,  79-80;  Imagination, 
142-3;  Weak,  160-1;  Bad  habits, 
165—6 ;  Strengthening,  166 : 

Weakened  by  alcohol,  186 ;  De- 
velops personality,  267-8 ;  Reso- 
lute, 269-70;  Cultivation,  270-1; 
Weak  chin,  270;  "My  Will,"  271; 
Expression  of  self,  291-2;  "Get- 
ting there,"  292-3  ;  Physiognomy, 
292  :    Opportunity,   311 

Woolworth,  122,  231 

Work, 

Love  of.  295-6;   Pleasure,  58-9 

Wright  Brothers,  197 


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